Category: music

Band breakups are often spectacularly dirty. But “the music world — full of notoriously volatile and dysfunctional types who have long preferred to rock it out, not talk it out — has become more receptive to therapists and their ministrations. Though the notion of seeking help remains one of rock’s dirty little secrets, some of these therapists have become a regular part of band retinues.”

Mark Morris is known as a particularly musical choreographer. And he has some Particularly strong opinions about musicians. At Tanglewood this summer he has musicians up dancing. “This experience makes musicians better. Way better! The thing is, I’m the enemy of the conservatory, because it kills music. Nobody gives a damn about intonation. It’s not about that. Imagination has been wrung out of these people, and it’s tragic. Really, musicians have lousy rhythm.”

The Pearl River Piano Company based in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou, is now the world’s largest piano maker. At the company’s spotless factory, 280 pianos a day roll off the production line like cars in an auto plant. “China’s one-child policy has created a culture where parents invest heavily in their children’s education – a boon for piano makers like Pearl River.”

“A symphony conductor donned scuba gear and used a red snorkel for a baton to lead a group of underwater ‘musicians’ wearing tuxedos and sequins Saturday in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The scene was part of the yearly Underwater Music Festival that attracted more than 400 divers and snorkelers to Looe Key Reef, about 6 miles south of Big Pine Key.”

A legendary Royal Opera House production of Tosca is finally seeing its final curtain. “The production was first staged 40 years ago in 1964, starring the legendary Maria Callas as Tosca and Tito Gobbi as the police chief Scarpia. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, it has returned to Covent Garden year on year and been staged more than 230 times.”

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s contract with its musicians expires in September, and negotiators seem to be far apart. “Deficits are nothing new at the orchestra, but this season’s shortfall is unusually large: $4 million. In response, management has already implemented a number of surprising cuts, asking music director Christoph Eschenbach to take a 10 percent pay cut, reducing fees for guest soloists and conductors by 10 percent, and asking administrators to take a week’s unpaid vacation.”

“Down in the mists of Greenwich, miles from the nearest Ring, they are dusting off Graham Greene’s only opera. Never seen it, say the buffs. Worth a tube trip for curiosity value. Add it to the stock of esoterica for the bar chat at Bayreuth. That’s how opera fans go about their business, collecting wayside works for the inevitable Wagnerian longueurs.”

Wagner at Glastonbury, Boheme in Trafalgar Square… why are English opera companies hitting the road? “It does not matter whether anyone was in fact converted to opera by the Glastonbury Valkyrie, Wednesday’s Bohème, or any of the educational programmes that have become de rigueur. No, what counts is that opera is seen to be reaching out to the unconverted, is seen to have outgrown its image as a bastion of privilege, is seen to be democratical ly accountable, however token the gesture.”

What would Duke Ellington have thought of the decision by the Pulitzer board to broaden the prize’s music category to include jazz? He would have thought, writes Nat Hentoff, that it was damn well about time.

So rock music is officially 50 years old. So much for officially. “Just when did rock really begin? It’s an issue that has long been tinged with racism, specifically the notion that it took a white man to make it rock ‘n’ roll, whereas before it was only R&B and what was then described as ‘race music’.”