Category: music

Scientists have failed to determine whether a skull they tested is that of Mozart. “The scientists hoped to match its DNA to genetic samples taken from what they believed are the skeletons of Mozart’s grandmother and niece. The scientists said on Austrian television Sunday that the skeletons do not match the skull, and that the skeletons are also unrelated – creating a whole new mystery of who is buried the Mozart family crypt.”

We’re now two years into the performance. The abandoned Buchardi church in Halberstadt, eastern Germany, is the venue for a mind-boggling 639-year-long performance of a piece of music by US experimental composer John Cage (1912-1992). Entitled “organ2/ASLSP” (or “As SLow aS Possible”), the performance began on September 5, 2001 and is scheduled to last until 2639.

Singing seems to have disappeared from British public life. “The main reason people don’t sing is that it’s a very exposing thing to do. In Britain we’re especially good at using the voice to cover our real thoughts and feelings. But in singing you can’t help revealing yourself. It’s like suddenly going naked, vocally speaking.”

Berlin has three major opera companies. But the city has struggled to pay for them, and “some kind of funding crisis is almost certain to occur perhaps as early as late this year.”

It’s a tough time for music critics. “Along with the usual horrors that print pubs endure now, the music press has its own particular headaches. Not only are publications reigning in their use of freelancers (Rolling Stone, Red Flag), others are cutting their word count (Washington Post, Village Voice) or cutting their pay rates (the Voice again, which is also dealing with a recent takeover). And while ‘zines are generally more open about accepting material, they’re also feeling the crunch of ad dollars and the pressure from record companies to include more–and thus, shorter–reviews to make up for the space.”

Independent CD stores are having a tough time. “Album sales are in decline, music consumers continue to migrate to music downloading and CD-burning. The loss-leader approach to CD sales at giant chains such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy have smothered mom-and-pop outfits. And when prerecorded CDs are sold, more and more often it’s through new-approach merchants that are as varied as Amazon.com and Starbucks.”

“Glasgow-born John Fisher will take over the running of WNO in May. He replaces Anthony Freud, who has left after 11 years to take over Houston Opera in Texas. Mr Fisher’s track record includes being the first non-Italian ever to run an Italian opera house – La Fenice, in Venice. He has also been head of music at La Scala, Milan, and is now director of music administration at the Met.”

“Sales of MP3 players soared by 200% in 2005 and the market for headphone entertainment continues to grow with portable video players and handheld games consoles. But the trend has prompted concern from Britain’s leading hearing loss charity, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID). It found 39% of 18 to 24-year-olds listened to personal music players for at least an hour every day and 42% admitted they thought they had the volume too high.”

In case you hadn’t heard, 2006 is the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, and classical music organizations the world over are falling all over themselves to pay tribute. So you might expect New York’s newly rejuvenated Mostly Mozart festival to be throwing the biggest party of them all, and you’d be right, but organizers are taking the unusual path of viewing Mozart through the lens of contemporary society. As part of its tribute, Mostly Mozart has commissioned four new works, “three of them ‘inspired’ by Mozart.” Throw in a Peter Sellars staging of a Mozart opera, a dance interpretation of the master’s piano works, and “a digital art installation tied to the Jupiter Symphony,” and it should be anything but a dull summer in New York.

It’s $25 million. “The gift – not the more usual pledge, but money that is available now – is mostly unrestricted and will go immediately toward plugging any deficit this season, a figure that at the moment is expected to be several million dollars, Joseph Volpe, the Met’s general manager, said.”