Category: music

“The home of Britain’s classiest opera parties is about to strike out in a new direction by staging ‘hiphopera’, complete with f-words and rap music, in the country house setting of Glyndebourne. The transformed version of Mozart’s masterpiece is part of an increasingly successful attempt to draw new, and particularly young, audiences to the venue, which has a largely unfair but deep-rooted image of exclusivity and expense.”

“Music copied onto blank recordable CDs is becoming a bigger threat to the bottom line of record stores and music labels than online file-sharing, the head of the recording industry’s trade group said Friday. Burned” CDs accounted for 29 percent of all recorded music obtained by fans in 2004, compared to 16 percent attributed to downloads from online file-sharing networks.”

World music can be endlessly inventive. “The debate throughout the polity in recent weeks has centred on issues of multiculturalism and tolerance. The world’s problems are not going to be solved by people playing crazy rhythms, and meaning it, but it is a small indicator that we are travelling in the right direction. There is another imperative at work here, however – that of selling records. Music is an industry, as well as an art form and a cultural tradition; and it happens to be an industry that is finely honed in its marketing and promotional techniques. And, wouldn’t you know it, the requirements of commerce and artistic integrity occasionally fail to gel.”

It’s called “taste magnetics: People experiencing art together are apt to concur on its merits. When you laugh, I’m more prone to smile. When you flinch, I grimace. We’re swayable. Taste magnetics also helps account for the persistence of payola, or radio ‘pay for play.’ That bogeyman of the music biz is back. Reactions seem split: Camp 1 cries, ‘See why the radio is so full of lousy music?’ while Camp 2 yawns, ‘Same as it ever was; you can’t buy hits.’ Each has a point.”

Which are the best American orchestras? After a year in which he heard most of the contenders, Mark Swed has some observations about where the new powerhouses are… and what it takes to be the best.

The Brooklyn Philharmonic has appointed Michael Christie (recently named music director of the Phoenix Symphony) as its music director. “He takes over after a two-year search that left the orchestra leaderless after the departure of Robert Spano, who had stayed on as an adviser. Mr. Christie, who was Mr. Spano’s former student, will conduct three of the orchestra’s four subscription concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this season.”

The recording label recently lost a lawsuit that has put the company on the verge of bankruptcy. “Hyperion generates intense affection among classical listeners the world over for its esoteric mix of lesser works by great composers and discoveries by minnows. An American fan offered to buy all of its 1,100 recordings for Hyperion to deposit in countries that lack access to western culture. Perry is negotiating a first delivery to the Baghdad School of Music and Ballet, with help from local fixers and the British Embassy. He will do whatever it takes to put the company on its feet again after a catastrophe that would have driven most family businesses to bankruptcy.”

John Adams previews his new opera about the atomic bomb. “Adams’s third opera, which has been in the making for five years, is his first return to the medium 14 years after achieving worldwide notoriety with two provocative and now seminal works, Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer. According to Ms. Rosenberg, it took a bit of persuading to lure Adams, whom she described as ‘the greatest composer alive today,’ back to the world of opera. But ultimately the saga of the bomb’s conflicted inventor J. Robert Oppenheimer, which Rosenberg proposed to Adams, proved too operatic to turn down. Sellars described recently declassified government documents, incorporated into the libretto, which might fundamentally change everyone’s perception of this world-changing event.”

Fifteen years ago, Sofia Gubaidulina was little-known outside the Soviet Union. But “With the fall of the Soviet Union and a spate of large-scale commissions from orchestras in Europe, North America and Japan, Gubaidulina, now in her 70s, has become one of the most sought-after composers in the world. Success has brought modest independence and a small house outside Hamburg, where she lives quietly and simply, with close friends nearby. All she wants is to write music.”

The waves are still rolling from the Baltimore Symphony’s appointment of Marin Alsop as music director. “Ms. Alsop’s appointment is known to have been deeply controversial. If this is simply sexism, then it isn’t worth worrying about, as she will know how to ride it out. If it’s concern about a change in repertoire–Baltimore’s former conductor Yuri Temirkanov represented a very traditional outlook and Ms. Alsop champions a more diverse approach–then three cheers for the Baltimore board. But if it’s about the psychology of leadership, then this is a story the whole orchestra world will want to follow.”