Category: music

“The real irony about the 75-year-old Maazel’s return to the Covent Garden pit, as conductor of his own work, is that he hasn’t been there since 1978, six years before the title of the piece that has cost a million quid for six performances. Even as a conductor, he is ‘past his sell-by date’, to quote myself here six months ago, after hearing him re-open La Fenice in Venice with the most vulgar of Traviatas.”

A 12-member chamber choir is a real success story in South Florida. So much so that the the ambitious choir’s founder is expanding into a regional presence. “Some might say that Patrick Quigley’s plans are more foolhardy than ambitious. In South Florida, where a symphony orchestra playing Beethoven couldn’t stay in business, a 12-member choir performing Bach and Palestrina wouldn’t seem to have wide populist appeal. Yet unlike many Cassandras who point to the demise of the Florida Philharmonic as a sign that classical music should be added to South Florida’s endangered-species list, the optimistic Quigley sees vast potential for growth.”

A new study says women are not downloading music over the internet. “This is the new digital divide, with a huge survey by market information company TNS revealing that the vast majority of downloading is done by men – a staggering 96% of market share. People in the UK buy more music per head of population than in any other country, and we already have the highest ownership rates of iPods and MP3 players in the world. So why aren’t digital downloads bringing music to women’s ears?”

Rock music is fading from the radio airwaves. So “record companies are attempting to adapt to modern rock’s recent marginalization on the airways in major markets like Philadelphia, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. by emphasizing other options for building buzz. In lieu of airplay, touring, blogs, ringtones, downloads, Internet and satellite radio, videogame tie-ins, alliances with brand marketers, film and TV exposure, sponsorships and placements in commercials all are growing in value.”

A band called the Bays is getting some serious attention. But the band refuses to record and make CD’s, saying that live performance is an essential element to enjoying their music. “The Bays remind you that music is about experience rather than shopping. Making records may be “an aberration in the history of music”, which has always been about performance.”

With the Philadelphia Orchestra announcing it will record every performance for possible later release on CD, might other orchestras be far behind? “Every situation is unique, but all of us are operating in a totally changed environment. In the old days, if things didn’t work out with one recording company, there were always a dozen other options. Now there aren’t any, and I think everyone realizes that. To make this happen, management and orchestra will have to be partners, not adversaries.”

The BBC is playing the complete works of Beethoven. “These concerts will be aired on Radio 3 and ‘streamed’ for a week on the website. This, as never before, is Beethoven for free – a gift to the world, just as the longsuffering composer might have wished. So radical is this departure from all prior conventions of broadcasting and distributing works of music that the consequences are simply uncalculated. No-one knows if ten people or ten million will download the Beethoven symphonies and whether, if kept, they will form the cornerstone for a new habit of hoarding classical music, a surrogate for record buying.”

The Baltimore Symphony has a little more than a year to go before the final departure of music director Yuri Temirkanov, and the search for a replacement has been underway for months. But so far, there doesn’t appear to be a frontrunner (despite early rumors that BSO management was tilting towards Marin Alsop) and community surveys have indicated that concertgoers don’t much care whether the new boss is an American or agrees to live in Baltimore, two qualifications frequently valued by music critics and orchestra insiders. The BSO is also struggling to bring a massive accumulated deficit under control, and the very real need for reinvigorated fundraising will figure prominently in the search process.

Ask the musicians of l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal why they have called a strike, and they will describe the OSM’s management as unwilling to pay going market rates for a top-notch orchestra. “But the heart of the two-year-old contract dispute remains management’s desire to gain more control over working conditions. The two sides have spent over 40 bargaining sessions arguing about 100 workplace concessions demanded by executive director Madeleine Careau… Players said that some concessions on Careau’s list were either unprecedented in the industry or not in accordance with Quebec’s labour laws.”

“Ticketholders to last night’s Montreal Symphony Orchestra performance expressed anger that a threatened strike on Monday could cut short a season subscribers have already paid for.” And while some concertgoers were sympathetic to the musicians’ plight (they have been working without a contract for 18 months,) many said that a strike was not the way to solve the problem. The musicians say that they are open to further negotiations, but none are scheduled before the Monday strike deadline.