Category: music

Is digital music distribution threatening the complex history of jazz? That might be overstating it a bit, but it is a fact that the new generation of digital downloads, portable MP3 players, and track-by-track purchasing habits is creating a musical universe nearly devoid of context, which could be seen as antithetical to complex forms such as jazz and classical music. “Millions of young listeners are buying music that is sold without liner notes, correct recording dates and session information. Even the musicians’ names are often removed from their performances… The information that has been removed from jazz albums can still be replaced. But consumers probably will have to demand it first.”

San Jose’s beautiful new California Theatre has been generating plenty of excitement in Silicon Valley and beyond. But a full house is dependant on much more than buzz, and for the California to be a success in the long run, it will be necessary for it to mount consistently high-quality presentations. That’s asking a lot of a city which recently saw its symphony replaced with a decidedly part-time ensemble, and which features an opera company which is still just beginning to come into its own.

Classical music has never really found a home in the world of home video. Aside from a brief flirtation with the laser disc (the bulky, expensive, LP-sized predecessor to the DVD), there has been almost no way to enjoy both the sights and sounds of a classical performance other than to actually attend one. But with the advent of the DVD, and advances in video transfer technology, the classical market is rapidly growing. “Sales [of classical DVDs] regularly hit 5,000 units, the standard break-even figure for classical CDs, and go as high as 40,000 worldwide.” What’s the attraction? Here’s a hint: “Even the most expensive DVD operas cost less than sound-only, full-price CD sets.”

Whatever one may think of the Three Tenors phenomenon, there is no doubt that Messrs. Pavarotti, Domingo, and Carreras significantly upped the popular interest in opera. Now, the ‘next great superstar tenor’ has been anointed, and he is Juan Diego Florez, “described by Pavarotti as the singer who could replace him.” Florez, like so many other great tenors of the new breed, has built his reputation on substance rather than flash and dash. But will the allure of superstardom prove too strong to resist?

This year’s jury has been named and the rules have been set in the runup to the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. “This time, the competition will present only two categories of medals. Up to four medals will be awarded, in any combination of gold and silver. Both gold and silver medals will carry $20,000 cash awards, concert management for three years and a compact disc recording on the Harmonia Mundi label.” Another change will require the finalists to perform a 50-minute solo recital in addition to playing concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

“With debts mounting and its future on the line, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has drafted an unusual proposal to take out the equivalent of a 30-year mortgage on its house in order to fund new programs that it hopes will boost revenue and finance a deficit that is expected to grow to $12 million by 2008. The BSO’s board has agreed in principle to sell Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to a newly created nonprofit subsidiary, which will finance the purchase by issuing as much as $30 million in tax-exempt bonds, under one scenario presented to directors. The orchestra would then lease the concert venue back from the subsidiary for an amount to be determined.”

“Austin City Limits” used to be the name of a nice, genteel little television program presenting live music to a Texas-based studio audience. But these days, ACL is an institution, and a wildly successful festival that is rapidly outgrowing its capacity. “ACL got huge in just three years, and the growing pains are obvious. Last Saturday, when the attendance passed 75,000, ACL felt like rush hour in a subway station with people walking in all directions, cellphones pressed to their ears, oblivious to the music… Monstrous crowds may generate excitement and boost the local economy, but they can just as easily turn a festival into one big drag.”

Nearly every American orchestra is in search of a larger core audience, and the question of where the classical music audience has gone is a subject that has filled books, magazines, and countless seminars within the industry. “No one-size-fits-all answer to the dilemma exists, but orchestras around the nation are trying different approaches – and some of them seem to be working.” The American Symphony Orchestra League has been studying the marketing techniques that work, and the ones that don’t, in an effort to provide its members with a concise and (dare we say?) simple strategy for getting butts in the seats.

An American music director is increasingly expected to be all things to all people, and when a major orchestra loses one of the good ones, as the Pittsburgh Symphony unquestionably has with the departure of Mariss Jansons, it can be difficult to know what course to follow next. That’s why the PSO’s decision to hire three well-regarded conductors to handle the various duties with which a music director would ordinarily be saddled is “a refreshingly honest response to difficult and conflicting realities,” says Mark Kanny. “Here is a trio that has the potential to excel in a broad range of repertoire few other orchestras will be able to match.”

It would be easy to blast the Toronto Symphony for its decision to segregate all the new music it will play this year into a few specialty concerts, rather than to intersperse it within its programming of classical warhorses. But “suppose the mainstream classical audience and the new music audience just aren’t the same people. Then new music might do better by itself, where it could draw the audience that wanted it… Does anyone actually know how many people in the orchestra audience like to hear new music? Some orchestra professionals I know, perhaps with better data than I have, think the number is very, very small.”