Category: music

Canada’s Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra made headlines a few months back with a pitched internal battle over a decision to terminate its music director. The orchestra has been trying to put the incident behind it, but much bitterness remains. Three members of the board of directors have resigned in the last month, and the remaining members are still sharply divided, with the minority side pushing for conductor Martin Fischer-Dieskau to be rehired.

“A series of concerts organized by foreign embassies in Iran have been cancelled at the last minute, apparently due to increased curbs on cultural events by the Islamic republic’s hardliners, diplomats said yesterday. Two jazz concerts organized by Italy’s embassy were cancelled last week just hours before the Italian performers — who had flown here for the event — were due to take to the stage… In addition, diplomats said a series of Swiss embassy-sponsored classical music soirees due to take place this week were ordered to be cancelled without any explanation.”

Several prominent reggae artists have recently faced widespread protest and condemnation for their antigay lyrics, and some have even found themselves disinvited from events and awards shows. But many of the same groups that have been so furious in their condemnation of the exclusively black reggae singers seem to take a wholly different tone when dealing with the viciously homophobic (but blond/blue-eyed) rapper Eminem. Could there be a twinge of racism behind all the protest?

The English National Opera’s current revival of Calixto Bieito’s much-hated 2001 production of Don Giovanni is causing critics and opera devotees the world over to wonder whether those involved in the show have taken leave of their senses. Mark Stone, who has the lead in the revival, doesn’t quite see what all the fuss is about, but as he reveals in his online diary leading up to opening night, he’s more than a bit nervous about his decision to accept the role.

So how bad is Bieito’s Don Giovanni? Not bad at all, says one critic, and while all the simulated sex on stage does frequently make the singers look quite uncomfortable and damned silly besides, there’s nothing here to offend anyone with prior knowledge of how lascivious opera plots can be. Oh, and in case anyone cares, the cast is apparently singing Mozart’s music quite well…

London’s Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music are being accused of class bias after a study revealed that less than half of applicants from state-run public schools were accepted to the schools, despite a government benchmark of 88%. The schools complain that they cannot be expected to admit unqualified students, and that music education has been so devalued in the public schools that a generation of pupils has grown to university age without any high-level understanding of the subject.

The Cincinnati Symphony has inked a new contract with its musicians, and the particulars are an ominous sign for musicians in a season in which most of the major American orchestras are negotiating. “It includes a two-year wage freeze, renegotiation of the orchestra’s health-care plan and a reduction through attrition in the number of full-time musicians from 99 to 92.”

The news stories about the Pittsburgh Symphony’s new artistic leadership model made copious use of the term “triumvirate.” But, says Andrew Druckenbrod, the PSO’s plan is far from the idea of a three-headed boss, and that’s a good thing, given the clashes of ego that could be involved in such an arrangement. “In truth, no one is succeeding Mariss Jansons as music director — not [Sir Andrew] Davis, not all three of the conductors. That’s the heart of the revolution of the PSO’s announcement: The changed relationship between an artistic leader and the orchestra that gives the musicians and staff more power in deciding the future of the group.”

Nonesuch Records has always been an anomaly in the world of the American recording industry. More than merely a collection of artists, this label actually inspires loyalty in its customers, many of whom will go out of their way to purchase a Nonesuch album, sure that their money will not be wasted. Indeed, the “tiny, vigorously eclectic label… has become a kind of American cultural institution. It has an influence far out of proportion to its size, and some think it could be a guidepost for a record industry in desperate need of direction.”

Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena has been voted artist of the year in the UK’s Gramophone Awards. Kozena, who has made headlines recently for becoming pregnant by Sir Simon Rattle, has risen quickly to become one of Europe’s most prominent classical voices in the last few years. The award is voted by the readers of Gramophone magazine.