Category: music

Conductor Charles Mackerras has been racking up awards. There’s a reason, writes Rupert Christiansen: “He is the most purposeful of conductors: a Mackerras performance invariably has energy, pace, bounce, clarity, shape. With his unique gift for getting music moving, he puts singers as well as orchestras on their toes – there’s no slacking under his baton, no empty sentimentality or self-indulgence.”

The musicians of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra have agreed to restructure their contract and take a massive pay cut in an attempt to keep the orgaization afloat financially. Individual musicians would see their salaries drop between $22,261 and $26,713 under the terms of the new agreement, which was reached after the CSO’s board refused to announce the next season without major changes to the contract.

The Florida Orchestra is asking its home city of St. Petersburg to triple its contribution to the orchestra, to $221,000. The request comes as the orchestra prepares to move to a local church for a year as its hall is being renovated. “But the request could be a difficult one for the City Council’s three-member budget committee… The committee also has to weigh requests from at least 10 other agencies, who want a piece of the $797,000 available for fiscal year 2006, which starts Oct. 1. The orchestra is competing with the Festival of States, which wants $100,000; the Pier Aquarium, which wants $92,000; and the Tennis Foundation of St. Petersburg, which wants $60,000.”

“Clive Gillinson has run the London Symphony Orchestra for the past 21 years, seen the orchestra establish itself at the Barbican in London, pioneered orchestral own-labels with LSO Live (or “LSO Clive” as the wags prefer) and fashioned a £17m music education centre at what was the crumbling ruin of St Luke’s church, close to the Barbican. It is a formidable achievement, especially at a time when the recording industry has been contracting. Now Gillinson’s long tenure is coming to an end.”

Joe Kluger’s departure from the executive directorship of the Philadelphia Orchestra will leave a large void not only in Philadelphia, but in the American orchestra scene writ large. For better or for worse, Kluger was a major player on the national scene, and he led his orchestra through some of its most tumultuous years, including a bitter strike in 1996. The orchestra’s musicians don’t seem terribly sorry to see him go, but the ensemble’s board chair points out that he loved the ensemble enough to take a far lower salary than his peers in the industry. A search for Kluger’s replacement will commence immediately.

Former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard says he’s ready to step in and intervene in the strike at the Montreal Symphony. Bouchard is chairman of the orchestra’s board. “The MSO earned its reputation as one of the top 10 orchestras in the world through touring and recording, but Bouchard says the inflexibility of the musicians’ current contract makes it impossible to keep that up. ‘The proof is in the pudding. For the last five years, we have not been able to tour abroad’.”

Calgary’s best music students aren’t staying in Canada for school. Instead they’re being recruited by music schools in the US, who are offering scholarships. “Yes, it means we are losing our best and brightest, but it is the only way they can achieve recognition on a worldwide basis.”

Will Australian states agree to demands by the federal government in order to qualify for funding for orchestras? “Only South Australia’s Government has confirmed it will meet the new benchmarks, ensuring the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s financial future. The federal funding also could be withheld if orchestras baulk at implementing industrial relations reforms recommended in businessman James Strong’s review – but that is not expected.”

Paul Daniel’s reign at English national Opera has not been a happy one, writes Rupert Christiansen. “Insiders reported that his relationship with the orchestra never really coalesced. Daniel has a Blairish desire to be thought a cool kind of a guy, but fiddlers and flautists are not so easily fooled, and Daniel never earned the respect that another of his predecessors, Mark Elder (a far steelier character), had commanded as music director in the 1980s. But this is less than half the story…”

Michigan Opera Theatre created a lot of buzz about its Richard Danielpour/Toni Morrison opera “Margaret Garner”, writes David Stearns. “It’ll do fine (I think). Dramaturgical lapses are there, but the strengths of Margaret Garner are so considerable and wide-ranging that the piece is legitimately destined to make new friends for opera without alienating old ones.”