Category: music

“Neeme Jarvi says his impending exit as music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra wasn’t strictly his idea. He also declares he’d be happy to spend several weeks a year with the DSO while a search committee headed by Anne Parsons, the orchestra’s new executive director, looks for his successor. With Jarvi starting his final season at the artistic helm and Parsons just settling in, the landscape around the DSO might appear to be shifting. But don’t expect sudden upheaval.”

Yuri Temirkanov has announced that he will step down as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the end of the 2005-06 season. “He left his imprint on the BSO early during his tenure, replacing several principal players, including the pivotal position of concertmaster, with musicians who greatly enhanced the ensemble’s overall tone… Temirkanov has been on a year-to-year contract since his initial three-year contract with the BSO expired at the end of the 2002-2003 season.”

The first-ever full Australian production of Wagner’s Ring cycle is being mounted by Adelaide’s State Opera South Australia…

It’s opening week for many American orchestras, and a new trend is emerging in response to the years of deficits plaguing so many ensembles: less star power, more homegrown talent. Research shows that a vast majority of the modern orchestra audience decides whether to attend a concert based on what’s being played, not on who’s playing it, so it hardly makes fiscal sense to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a big-name soloist who will only marginally increase the gate. In Minnesota, both of the Twin Cities’ major orchestras have bought into the idea of showcasing the ensemble rather than some traveling star, and the upcoming season will be an acid test of the attendance theory.

If the BBC Proms are the People’s Choice Awards of orchestra festivals, then the Lucerne Festival must surely be the Oscars. Presented in one of the finest modern concert halls in the world and featuring a lineup that most critics would agree amounts to the very best orchestras the world has to offer (Cleveland, Concertgebouw, Vienna, etc.), Lucerne has risen in recent years to become the festival for people who are serious about music. More than that, though, the festival has boosted the profile of the city, and now, the fest’s director has built a unique orchestra just for Lucerne, “drawing together outstanding orchestral musicians and soloists… from across the European continent.”

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra opens its season after a summer of turmoil surrounding the ensemble’s purchase of millions of dollars of possibly overvalued instruments from now-imprisoned financier Herbert Axelrod. And while the controversy is far from over, James Oestreich says that it’s nice to see the music once again taking center stage in Newark. “Whatever the collection may be worth beyond the smoke and mirrors of expert appraisals, no one questions that these are marvelous instruments and a boon to the orchestra.”

Who will succeed Andrew Litton as music director of the Dallas Symphony? “One thing’s clear: The field is wide open. At least at this point, there’s no leading contender.” So here’s a list of the possibilities…

Gerard Schwarz has been music director of the Seattle Symphony for 20 years. But his hold on the orchestra has been troubled in recent seasons. “The reasons are many and complex, including increasing conflicts between influential members of the symphony’s board of trustees and Schwarz over artistic and administrative policies and doubts about his future value as music director…”

Why do some people go to clubs to listen to music, then spend the performance talking away? “Talkers embody the raw Darwinism of popular music. The harshest public trial for any unknown musician occurs on the night she opens for somebody else, to an entire room full of people prepared to ignore her. She’s got to compel someone to listen or the jungle will close over her.”

“While the recording business litigates and lobbies over music being given away online, countless musicians are taking advantage of the Internet to get their music heard. They are betting that if they give away a song or two, they will build audiences, promote live shows and sell more recordings.”