Category: music

“Thailand’s decision to be the first Southeast Asian nation to present the work has surprised even the most ardent Wagnerians. The production, by the Bangkok Opera, has the official blessing of the composer’s great-grandson Wolfgang, who inaugurated Bangkok’s Wagner Society last year. But it is a huge undertaking for a country that has been producing Western opera for only five years. Will Wagner be raising a quizzical eye from beyond the grave?”

Yehudi Wyner has won this year’s Pulitzer for music. “Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra through the New Works Fund (established by the Massachusetts Cultural Council), the concerto was premiered by soloist Robert Levin and the BSO under the baton of frequent guest conductor Robert Spano on February 17, 2005.”

More and more, performers of classical music concerts are speaking to their audiences. Andrew Clark isn’t impressed: “The trouble with speaking to the audience is that it limits the imaginative scope of the music. Listening to someone discussing a piece of music before you have a chance to hear it pre-programmes your responses. The music has no chance to communicate freely. You are left with a number of objective ideas about what to think and feel, circumscribing the subjective impressions that music seeks to create in the listener through the medium of sound.”

Gadgets of our electronic age are increasingly becoming a distraction in the concert hall. A woman next to Robert Hurwitz in a concert recently spent the performance working on her Blackberry while the music played. “The concert hall is not a church or a temple, but in many ways it is a sanctuary from modern life. It is not, and should not be merely an escape where we hear pretty, soothing melodies or music that relaxes us (for that, smooth jazz radio stations or New-Age records will do just fine). It is, rather, a refuge where we can go and still be fully engaged.”

Mstislav Rostropovich’s days of playing the cello are receding, and he’s been expanding his conducting activities, indulging a passion for Shostakovich. “He was the most important man in my life, after my father. Sometimes when I’m conducting, I see his face coming to me. Sometimes it’s not really a happy face — I conduct maybe a bit too slow, so I conduct faster, and the face disappears.”

At a time that major recording labels are busy suing downloaders for illegally trading music, unknown bands are finding downloads (legal or otherwise) a benefit. “For an increasing number of acts, free or illegal downloads are a promotional tool more valuable than money.”

David DiChiera is the “genial founding general director of Michigan Opera Theatre”, and the builder of Detroit’s $50-million opera house. “They are the products of his vision, his sweat, his moxie and his leadership. They are his destiny. But the 10th anniversary of the opera house, along with the 35th anniversary of MOT, captures the company in transition.”

Last week scientists wired up conductor Keith Lockhart and some of his audience to measure physical response to music. But Richard Dyer is unimpressed: “Science may illuminate magic and mystery, but it isn’t going to eliminate them anytime soon.”

Who should be Washington’s National Symphony’s next music director? The orchestra ought to have more respect. More stature. Matter more. The orchestra has always been tough to lead, and Leonard Slatkin is only the latest conductor to be told his services were coming to an end. There are brilliant conductors out there, but the National probably doesn’t have the stature to play in the big leagues, writes Tim Page. So who can the orchestra get?

We hear about classical music dying on radio. But Boston’s WGBH is expanding its classical music offerings. The station is launch a new high-definition station to offer more classical music programming…