Category: music

“Chinese musicians and musical institutions appear ready to enter a newer and more integrated relationship with the international musical community. And the San Francisco Symphony — looking toward the Pacific Rim as any institution must that is situated on the American West Coast — must surely be thinking about its role in that integration. This was an underlying theme of the recent tour, giving it a slightly different tone from the orchestra’s visits to the major cities of Europe or the United States.”

“Amazon, the world’s No. 1 online retailer, is in advanced talks with the four global music companies about a digital-music service with a range of features designed to set it apart. Among them: Amazon-branded portable music players, designed and built for the retailer, and a subscription service that would deeply discount and preload those devices with songs, not unlike mobile phones that are included with subscription plans as part of the deal.”

“The Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s great orchestras, will play four concerts in Sydney in September at a cost of nearly $2 million, most of which will be borne by the Opera House. To break even it will need to sell 90 per cent of tickets, which range from $85 to $295 – more than double the price of the best seats in the Sydney Symphony’s most expensive concert this year.”

The family of the composer of The Lion Sleeps Tonight have settled their suit with Disney. “The relatives of South African Solomon Linda, who wrote the original Zulu tune, settled with the US owners of the copyright who had loaned it to Disney. The dispute over royalties arose when the song was used in The Lion King.”

“When it comes to consumer choice, it’s hard to beat recordings of the popular classics. There are now around 100 different recordings of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, and nearly 200 of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.” Conversely, you’re lucky if you can find even a single recording of that contemporary work your local orchestra played last weekend, and finding more than one recording of a work written after 1970? Forget it. “But now things are changing. As new music loosens up, and finds a genuine public, so the record companies are taking an interest in it.”

Mark Swed says that the Metropolitan Opera’s embrace of change under new director Peter Gelb comes just in time to counteract the creeping conservatism sweeping much of the rest of America’s classical music scene. “The inclinations of big money normally are not adventurous, and the companies reflect that. But there is also a climate of fear of offending an increasingly puritanical public. Although political and moral issues are an essential part of much great opera, these are touchy, politically divided times, and few arts administrators seem willing to take chances.”

There’s a different kind of orchestra crisis going on in Northern Ireland, where the Ulster Youth Orchestra was revealed last week to be in nearly complete disarray. The UK Arts Council stepped in when it was discovered that “bills had not been paid, the phone was disconnected and staff were no longer employed in [the UYO’s] office.” Now, a former vice-chancellor of a major British university has been placed in charge of overhauling the organization, and implementing an emergency plan agreed to by the orchestra and the council.

In Australia “Sanity Music, through its Sanity, HMV and Virgin stores, will introduce ‘music kiosks’ where customers can use touch screens and a vast digital library to order tracks and have the CD and packaging created on the spot.”

Pinchas Zukerman has ended his “medical leave” from Ottawa’s National Arts Center Orcehstra. “Last week, Zukerman apologized to the NAC players in a letter. It was not made public but included the words ‘I am sorry,’ said orchestra manager Christopher Deacon. Initial reaction from the players was conciliatory. ‘I think that sort of thing goes a long way to correcting the situation’.”

Classical music has been shown to reduce crime. So “the London Underground is broadcasting Mozart and Pavarotti through loudspeakers and claims it has resulted in a drastic reduction in anti-social behaviour by gangs of youths.”