Category: music

“Four years into the search to replace music director emeritus Neeme Järvi, the Detroit Symphony hasn’t selected a successor and a decision may be six months or a year away, perhaps longer.” While “the orchestra has given committed and expressive performances, yet the scent of unfulfilled potential lingers like a summer cold.” Here’a a list of potential music directors.

“While British music educationalists agonise over the merits (or otherwise) of ‘leading’ our children to orchestral music via urban grime projects in Hackney, the Chinese – as in so many Far Eastern countries – have stolen a march on us simply by introducing their children to classical music as a matter of course with no patronising sweeteners attached. As a result, there’s a buzz around the genre which is wholly absent in the West.”

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has named soprano Dawn Upshaw to an important part-time leadership position. The SPCO abandoned traditional music directorships in 2004, and named a collection of high-profile “artistic partners” who lead the orchestra in multiple programs over a period of years. Other current SPCO “partners” include conductor Douglas Boyd and violinist Joshua Bell. Of course, it’s one thing for a violinist to lead a conductor-less orchestra, and quite another for a soprano to do it…

Scottish Opera has unveiled its new season, and that in itself has to be considered an accomplishment, considering the turmoil the company has been in over the past two years. “Scottish Opera ceased full-scale opera productions for nearly a year and lost its permanent chorus in a major restructuring to pay off its debts,” but its new director says that it should be smooth sailing for the foreseeable future.

Allan Kozinn wrote a piece in last Sunday’s New York Times contending that rumors of the demise of classical music are greatly exaggerated. But Greg Sandow doesn’t believe it, and a vigorous debate has broken out…

“The thirteenth-century warlord Genghis Khan is best known as one of history’s most bloodthirsty rulers, and at first glance appears an unlikely subject for a Jesus Christ Superstar-type rock opera. But in his native Mongolia, a rock opera has opened that gives the medieval empire builder the Genghis Khan Superstar treatment, claiming he had a softer, more appealing side which was overlooked.”

When the Pittsburgh Symphony chose to forgo a traditional music director following the departure of longtime chief conductor Mariss Jansons, many in the music world wondered if the three-headed conducting team the PSO put in place could work. But three years in, the titular head of the triumvirate, Sir Andrew Davis, says it’s all working out fine. Still, he says, the arrangement does mean that it’s taken him a long time to get to know his orchestra…

Legendary pianist Alfred Brendel has stepped up to defend Simon Rattle against recent allegations in the press that the conductor’s relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic is not living up to expectations. “Contrary to what is said by a few critics, the Berlin Philharmonic is in superlative shape. Of course it is not a carbon copy of Karajan’s or Abbado’s orchestra… I remember the times when it was chic in Germany to look down on Karajan. Likewise, a press campaign against Claudio Abbado that claimed he had failed to rejuvenate the ageing orchestra, made him start packing his bags.”

Edinburgh will be getting a new concert hall within the next five years, if plans currently being floated go through. The new venue would replace the aging Queen’s Hall, would seat an audience somewhere between 500 and 1200 people, and would become the new home for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

The piano lives at Columbia University’s Medical School. Its “pedigree is more than just a nice tale. The medical school uses it to attract musically inclined applicants, part of its goal of producing well-rounded doctors. The Rachmaninoff identification was also mentioned in fund-raising efforts to restore it and several other medical school pianos, and to renovate practice rooms.”