Category: music

In England, 1934 was the worst of years. Three of the country’s best composers died within a six-month period. “The greatest, Edward Elgar, had been the first to die, full of years and loaded with honours, at his home in Worcester on February 23. Two months later, on May 25, Gustav Holst passed away in a London nursing home aged only 59. And on June 10, Frederick Delius passed away.”

Some say music downloading helps music sales. But a new study by the big music producers says that’s not the case. Some “28 per cent of the people surveyed who reported buying less music in the last 12 months said the decline was mainly due to downloading, file sharing and CD burning. Fifty-two per cent of music consumers who don’t download said they paid for music in the past month. Thirty-five per cent of downloaders said they’d bought tunes in the past month. When those who’d purchased were asked how they heard about the CD, only 2 per cent cited downloading.”

“The director of Hyperion Records plans to appeal against this week’s high court ruling that the company must pay copyright fees on its recording of a 300-year-old piece of music. The decision could have serious repercussions throughout the world of classical music.”

“English National Opera’s plan to bring high culture to the wide expanses of Trafalgar Square was last night defeated by the British weather. Seven thousand Londoners had snapped up free tickets to watch a live performance of Puccini’s La Bohème. But as heavy rains closed in and forecasters warned of winds gusting up to 35mph, even the 2,000 complimentary ponchos seemed unlikely to protect those braving the soggy Astroturf rolled out over the square’s paving.”

After three years of renovation, La Scala will move back into its home for the traditional December season premiere. “Opening the season at La Scala will be the same work performed when the theatre opened for business in 1778: Antonio Salieri’s Europa Riconosciuta.” But the welcome home will be brief – the opera company will move out again a few weeks later so the renovation job can be completed.

Lee Rosenbaum takes the electronic Concert Companion for a spin. “The constant flitting between commentary, video and the live performers, the glitchy image quality and the need to reboot after several crashes put me in a state of nervous agitation rather than rapt absorption. CoCo’s chief drawback, though, is that words can never adequately translate music. Background reading is helpful, either before or after a concert. But the best way to appreciate a live performance is to switch off all electronic devices and simply employ your ears.”

“The scourge of live bands, the illegal bootleg concert recording, will soon become a money spinner for the live music industry when a Sydney company offers patrons the opportunity to buy a CD of a show within five minutes of the finale.”

“Proposed changes to legislation allowing consumers to copy CDs for personal use, and to impose a levy on blank CDs for distribution to songwriters, would create an inefficient and unfair system, says the Australian Record Industry Association.”

Michael Tilson Thomas is nearing his tenth season as music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and the partnership shows no signs of fatigue. Under MTT, as he’s known throughout the industry, the symphony has flourished musically and become the media darling of American orchestras. So what now? Joshua Kosman thinks its time to start looking for Tilson Thomas’s successor. Seriously.

“Rehearsals for the eagerly anticipated new production of Richard Wagner’s final opera Parsifal at this year’s legendary Bayreuth Festival resumed yesterday after iconoclastic theatre director Christoph Schlingensief re-appeared for work following a few days absence. Schlingensief had plunged preparations for the prestigious annual summer music festival… into disarray on the weekend by calling in sick following a row with the composer’s grandson and festival chief Wolfgang Wagner.”