Category: music

Following in the footsteps of other American orchestras which have recently begun to embrace new technologies, the Boston Symphony is launching a free series of video podcasts as part of its two-year focus on the music of Beethoven and Schönberg. “The videos, which range in length from one to five minutes, discuss important works by the two composers, illustrated with still photographs, paintings, images of scores, video, and musical examples. They originated on the orchestra’s ambitious web site as part of its three-year-old Online Conservatory project, but are now available through Apple’s iTunes music store.”

The Baltimore Symphony is the latest ensemble to be facing down a series of crippling deficits, and eyebrow-raising endowment raids aside, there don’t appear to be any easy solutions. “The symphony’s operating expenses have been more than twice its operating revenue… Paring debt will help expenses only marginally, saving maybe a million or two in annual interest, assuming whomever covered the deficits charged interest. What really matter are demand for the symphony’s product and the cost to produce it, and in these categories symphonic orchestras are working at a disadvantage in the 21st century.”

The music world abounds with stories of soloist mishaps, usually involving a broken string or something equally innocuous. But violinist/heartthrob Joshua Bell added an unusual chapter of his own last week in Chicago: caught up in the passion of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Bell took too large a swipe with his bow, and with a mighty thwack, knocked over the delicate bridge that holds up his strings. (Yes, the famous Strad Bell plays on is fine.)

After years of absorbing seemingly endless criticism of its mission, its management, and its music, English National Opera may finally have scored a win with London’s famously combative critics. A new staging of Monteverdi’s Orfeo is “a magical mix of East and West which in no way impinges on the earthy drama of the score in all its filigree detail. The interaction of dance and music is, if anything, enhanced by their hieratic gestures, mirrored by the principals in more than usually convincing style.”

Five students at the prestigious Indiana University School of Music were killed Thursday night when the single-engine Cessna plane on which they were traveling to the school crashed just short of the Bloomington airport. Officials believe foggy conditions may have been a factor.

Any professional musician can tell you horror stories of trying to get his instrument onto a commercial airline in defiance of overzealous TSA screeners, overworked desk agents, and harried flight attendants. But Northwest Airlines appears to have hit a new low in musician relations: students from a Minnesota high school orchestra were shocked last week when Northwest refused to allow their insruments in the cabin, and charged $1600 to place them in the cargo hold, from whence several cellos and basses emerged broken and unplayable. The airline says it probably isn’t liable.

Recording giant EMI says its sales of digital downloads has increased by 150 percent in the last year. “The world’s third largest record company predicted that the jump would help its annual profits rise by 12%.” Downloading sales now account for 5.5 percent of the company’s music sales.

Street musicians – buskers – in New York can make $200 a day and up. “It’s interesting to see what the street looks like from this angle. You enter a new world when you put yourself out like this. In a club there’s an invisible wall between you and the audience. Here, there’s not.”

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is joining the expanding ranks of orchestras seeking to re-popularize their product by making it more appealing to the casual listener. “Principally, [this includes] two new series of concerts: Symphonies at Six, the RSNO’s first rush-hour series, and Naked Classics, a series devised to dissect and popularise classical music. Other new elements feature a design-it-yourself subscription series, a kids-go-free policy, and a dramatic reduction in the cost of concert tickets.” The RSNO’s young music director, Stephane Deneve, will also be getting involved in nearly every aspect of the season, leading family concerts and a Hallowe’en special in addition to his more traditional duties.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has tapped the dean of the Eastman School of Music to be its next president and CEO. James Undercofler is a surprise choice for two main reasons: first, it is very unusual for an orchestra executive to come from the academic world; and second, Undercofler officially took himself out of the running for the position and signed a contract extension with Eastman a month ago.