Category: music

A report on the controversial sale of rare violins to the New Jersey Symphony raised questions about the actions of the orchestra’s then director Lawrence Tamburri. “Tamburri helped lead the effort to acquire the instruments and was singled out by several of the report’s authors for failing to properly investigate rumors that Axelrod was under investigation by federal authorities over other instrument transfers.” Now Tamburri runs the Pittsburgh Symphony, but refuses to talk about the report…

The UK government proposes to levy enormous new license fees for outdoor music festivals that attract more than 6000 people. “The Department for Culture, Media and Sport wants to levy fees of up to £50,000 to cover the cost of health and safety inspections.”

New York’s Eos Orchestra has shut down because of money peoblems. The band put on “unusual and theatrical concerts like stripped-down versions of Wagner operas and the nonfilm music of Bernard Herrmann. “The group, which was founded by Jonathan Sheffer in 1995, had about four productions a year with up to 20 performances, and “at its peak” had an annual operating budget of about $2.5 million.”

Paris’ Bastille Opera House was evacuated because of a fire. “The evacuation of the modern building on the historic Place de la Bastille during a performance of The Sleeping Beauty went calmly but the show could not go on as some parts of the theatre were filled with smoke.”

The British have always been taken with the work of homegrown composer Michael Tippett, although he is hardly a household name elsewhere in the world. This is exactly as it should be, says Norman Lebrecht, and the coming celebration of his centenary will be little more than a tip of the cap to mediocrity. Tippett was, in fact, “an inglorious exemplar of English amateurism… Set beside any of his contemporaries, radical or conservative, British, American or European, Tippett fails the driving test of coherence.”

For many composers, the decline of classical recording has meant a lack of new opportunities to get their music memorialized in a permanent recorded fashion. For Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, it meant half a lifetime’s work suddenly becoming unavailable to the public when his record label was sold. But Davies’ refused to admit defeat, spent months reacquiring the copyrights to his recorded work, and launched a new web site offering the old recordings and more, either by quick-and-easy download for between £1 and £4, or on custom-made CD for only slightly more. “It is a dazzling, breathtaking example of the composer cutting out the middle man and taking charge of his own destiny.”

Tuba may seem like an odd instrument around which to center your life and work, but ask the musicians of nearly any orchestra, and you’ll find that those brassy low note specialists are usually among the most well-liked members of the band. So it shouldn’t be a big surprise that all-tuba Christmas concerts are an increasingly popular phenomenon. “For many, the annual concerts–held in Chicago and 200 other cities worldwide–are a chance to break away from the tubist’s traditional role as steady bass accompanist and whale away on the melodies, albeit a few octaves lower than they’re normally played.”

The musicians of the Rochester (NY) Philharmonic have a new contract, albeit one which will last only eight months. After playing without a contract for several months as negotiations continued, an agreement was reached on a one-year deal (retroactive to September) which will freeze the base salary at $36,100. There is little time for either side to catch its breath, though, as negotiations will need to begin anew in the spring.

Why are Melbourne’s two opera companies merging after all these years? “The merger is ‘primarily one of commonsense’ for companies staging the most expensive of artforms on private patronage and box-office income alone – that is, they get no government subsidy. ‘You can’t have two non-funded companies struggling in competition against each other and against [companies such as Opera Australia] which are subsidised’.”

The New Jersey Symphony takes stock of its position after a critical report about its handling of a purchase of a group of rare violins. The report found that though the orchestra hasn’t done anything illegal, it had not been careful in how it made the purchase.