Category: music

“The tally for the violin created by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona exceeded the presale high estimate of $2.5 million. The purchaser, who was not identified, made the winning bid by telephone.”

It’s official – Daniel Barenboim has been named principal guest conductor at La Scala, and will be the highest ranking conductor there for at least the next several years (the company having declined to name a true music director for the time being.) Barenboim is also chief conductor at Germany’s most prestigious opera company, the Berlin Staatsoper, and the two companies plan to come together for several productions in future seasons.

An awful lot of money has gone to marketing pop music to men. But new studies show that “more women now spend more time listening to music than their male counterparts, with record labels speculating that the rise in digital downloads means they now find it quicker and easier to explore new artists.”

The Honolulu Symphony has been battling serious fiscal problems for years, and this season was no exception. But as the orchestra wrapped up its year onstage, the Hawaii state legislature came through with a $4 million matching gift for the HSO’s endowment, as well as a $150,000 for educational programs. The orchestra will need to raise an additional $4 million in order to keep the state money, as part of a wider campaign to boost the HSO’s endowment.

The city of Tokyo has a whopping eight professional orchestras, but until recently, only three – the NHK Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony – have been considered major players on the national and international scene. Now, though, two of the lesser ensembles, both notable for operating without a major commercial sponsor, are making a major push for promotion to the top ranks of orchestras. But market factors are also at work, and with many in Japan (as elsewhere) questioning how many orchestras even the biggest cities need, the upstarts still have a long road ahead.

Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center unveils its new organ. “If the Philadelphia Orchestra has done well all this time without a proper in-residence pipe organ (as opposed to the Academy of Music’s movable organ), is this really something we need? Given the organ’s flashy range and magnitude of sound, will it usher in an era of effects more than music? Will it be some sort of Frankenstein’s monster, strangling all subtlety in its path?”

“In an online poll of 2,135 UK adults conducted by YouGov, 55% said they copied CDs onto computers, iPods, MP3 players and other equipment. Three in five of those questioned – 59% – thought it was legal to do so.”

“Barenboim’s appointment at La Scala, like the CSO’s recent appointment of Bernard Haitink as principal conductor and Pierre Boulez as conductor emeritus, buys the respective institutions time to fill two high-profile posts without rushing to make choices they might regret. Barenboim’s prominent role in La Scala’s future opens the door to a possible ascendancy to Muti’s former post somewhere down the line. A couple of major successes there could cinch it for him.”

“The orchestra generally played gloriously for Levine, who has given the guest conductors a new point of departure for their own adventures. The orchestra’s collective technique and sound have changed under Levine: There is more blend, more contrast, better balances, infinitely more refinement, and even more power.”

The Las Vegas Philharmonic is only eight years old. But the orchestra is growing, seems to have found an audience, and has a $1.5 million budget. So it’s time to pick a new music director. The candidates are: David Commanday of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, David Itkin of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Peter Rubardt of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra. As part of the selection process, they will serve as guest conductors during the 2006-07 season.