Category: music

“The conservatory’s emphasis is on one overriding subject: How to survive and succeed at an audition. Much time is devoted to teaching a student to stress the tried and true and to value unchanging metrical lines above expressiveness and rubato. The best performer is the one who can play a cliche in the most reliable manner. As a result, students pursue a gingerly course. This is now so entrenched in the nation’s top schools that many of the soloists below the age of 35 I hear in concert are guilty of plodding and ciphering; they trudge through the music unscathed but without communicating its substantive meaning.”

“Blockbuster Weekend was how the City of Chicago billed its trifecta of free performances that included concerts by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Sunday afternoon and the Lyric Opera of Chicago on Saturday night. Each event attracted blockbuster crowds — some 10,000 for the CSO and 12,000 for the Lyric, according to a city spokeswoman. Now, all the symphony and opera have to do is translate that great wave of popular enthusiasm into paying customers, and nobody will be crying deficit.”

This thurday the UK’s Radio 3 is broadcasting the complete works of Anton Weber in order. “The timing is right. Even as recently as 20 years ago, Webern’s music was, to most folk, an arid curiosity – a period-piece belonging to a faction of early-20th-century modernism that was experimental, clandestine, even frustrated. In reality, Webern, Schoenberg and Berg were passionate individuals, seeking new paths for music as it struggled to come to terms with the suicidal excesses of 19th-century Romanticism. In this postmodern age, Webern’s insistent, challenging and single-minded voice has a renewed vigour and relevance.”

The Montreal Symphony has canceled the first four concerts of its season due to a continuing musicians’ strike. “Management announced late last week that its September concerts, including two with Belgian baritone José Van Dam, would not take place. A press release blamed the musicians, who have been on the picket line since May 9.”

The Cleveland Orchestra finishes up a tour of Europe. For one of the world’s most-acclaimed orchestra, the reviews were a mixed bag, with much attention focused on the skill of conductor Franz Welser-MÖst. Herewith a collection of critical excerpts…

Director Peter Sellars travels to Los Alamos to check out a little history before his opera with John Adams about the nuclear bomb (Dr. Atomic) opens in San Francisco. “With his spiky hair, enthusiastic laugh, endless curiosity, boyish friendliness and theatrical graciousness, Sellars attracts attention.”

The Beatles song “A Day in the Life has been named in a poll as the best British song ever. “The song, which featured on the classic Beatles album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, topped a survey of music experts by Q magazine. The magazine called the track ‘the ultimate sonic rendition of what it means to be British’.”

Independently-produced recordings are getting a greater share of the music market in the UK. “Almost a third of UK albums that went silver, gold or platinum in 2004 came from independent labels, according to figures next week from the Association of Independent Music (AIM).”

Denver opens a new opera house – the Ellie Caulkins Opera House to pomp and ceremony. “One couldn’t help noticing that this gathering of old Denver really was old Denver, but Mayor John Hickenlooper said the opera house “will bring in a new generation and give them new reasons to be proud of their city.”

“To celebrate what designers believe is a world-class opera house, a run-of-the-mill classical concert just would not do. Something very special was called for, and that’s what Opera Colorado plans to deliver Saturday evening with the first performance in the $92 million Ellie Caulkins Opera House… The opening of a new opera house anywhere is noteworthy, because the construction of such buildings is so rare. Some companies have to perform in less-than-ideal venues designed for multiple functions or adapted from other uses. For this 2,268-seat facility, Boulder acoustician Bob Mahoney and Semple Brown Design created a lyre-shaped theater that they believe can compete with any of the world’s top opera houses in terms of sound, comfort and technical sophistication.”