Category: music

Kenneth Walton cannot believe what the government is doing to Scottish Opera: “What we witnessed last week from the Executive was an act of cultural vandalism. This is an administration that has enshrined mediocrity as a standard for Scotland. We have a First Minister who recognises the manufactured celebrity of short-term Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus above the lasting, nurtured, talent of violinist Nicola Benedetti. By committing Scottish Opera to this ludicrous deal, it is closing the door to the access and development of opera in Scotland.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer sends not one, but two music critics to follow the Philadelphia Orchestra’s first European tour with music music director Christophe Eschenbach. The tour had mixed success, they report: “it’s unfortunate that in the orchestra’s cycle of touring, Europe coincided with Eschenbach’s first season. Europe is key to the orchestra’s international reputation. Too bad the relationship between Eschenbach and the orchestra hadn’t evolved over several seasons before they faced Vienna, London and Amsterdam. If what I heard in Madrid is what we’ll be hearing in the future, critics as well as audiences would have been more enthusiastic. As it is, the orchestra’s reputation has been somewhat damaged. How bad is it? How difficult is this damage to undo?”

The rules changes governing the eligibility of various types of music for the Pulitzer Prize may be controversial among academics and classical purists, but Howard Reich says that the change is nothing more than a long-overdue acknowledgement that American music is more than Europe-Lite. “More than six decades after the Pulitzer Board began giving prizes for music, in other words, it has come to recognize that American music is not simply European symphonic art penned by American composers in its thrall. On the contrary… the folkloric roots of jazz, blues, gospel and the like born of oral tradition and originated not in the salons of Vienna and Paris but in the fields of Africa and the islands of the Caribbean.”

How crazy about soccer (excuse me, football, please) in the UK? Well, when the big tournaments are on, songs associated with the matches become so popular, they crack the Top Ten music charts. “Three football songs feature in the top 10 of the UK singles chart as the country is gripped by Euro 2004 fever.”

Charleston, South Carolina, is best known as a tourist town full of Old South charm and beautiful beaches. But in the summer, Charleston may be the most diverse and successful arts town in the U.S. Not only is it home to the stateside incarnation of the Spoleto music festival, but the high-minded chamber music plays alongside a decidedly Edinburghian fringe festival known as Piccolo Spoleto.

“Sir Richard Armstrong, the artistic director of Scottish Opera, launched a scathing attack yesterday on Frank McAveety, culture minister, over what he described as brutal and shameful behaviour and an agenda to reduce the size of the company. Speaking at length for the first time about the new deal which will lead to more than 80 job losses and a “dark” season in 2005/6 with no major performances, he said the Scottish Executive had deliberately targeted the opera’s mainscale work because it believed it was watched only by a select and elitist audience.”

There is no doubt that Ludwig van Beethoven was deeply in love several times in his life. However, being the emotional basketcase that he was, nearly all of his objects of desire “women whose social or marital status – often both – placed them safely beyond reach.” The most famous of Beethoven’s women is, of course, the anonymous muse known as “Immortal Beloved.” To this day, no one knows who she was, “but she left the composer in a creative crisis that lasted for years.”

Daniel Barenboim’s successor at the helm of the Chicago Symphony will be chosen by a panel of 17 musicians, managers, and board members, according to the orchestra. In addition, the CSO is promising to give the public a serious voice in the process, soliciting comments by e-mail, and offering several open forums for concertgoers to voice their opinions on what qualities are most important in a music director.

New York City Opera wasn’t particularly surprised when city officials rejected their request to move to Ground Zero once the new complex is completed. General director Paul Kellogg insists that the company isn’t giving up its quest for a new home. “Despite his brave talk, however, the rejection of this proposal represents an enormous setback for this innovative company. It’s hard to think of another arts organization in New York that is so hobbled by its performance space.”

Ominous signs are looming over the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra these days, with accumulated debt mounting (expected to reach a whopping $8 million by 2005), controversy in the front office, and dissension in the boardroom. “Seven top administrators and other staff members have resigned [in recent weeks], including the chief financial officer, an executive board member and a member of the fund-raising department.” And the BSO’s decision to appoint a marketing specialist with no orchestral management experience to be the organization’s new president is being met with skepticism in some quarters, particularly after a widely-reported comment about broadening the audience beyond “wealthy old white people” hit the papers.