Category: music

Say goodbye to those 99-cent downloaded songs. “The five major record labels have been in negotiations recently with Apple over pricing and other issues associated with the year-old download service, which was launched to great fanfare last April. All five of the deals – with Universal, Sony, BMG, EMI and Warner Music – have already been signed, sources say, and the new pricing is already being rolled out for albums.” Prices are expected to go up to $1.25 per track.

Opera at the pop orgy that is Glastonbury? And Wagner yet? What a concept. “All agreed that this was a landmark event, a marriage of opposites, the very thing that the word ‘crossover’ had been invented to describe. I’m surprised, frankly, that it’s taken the festival organisers this long to make their point.”

Are you a music or a words person? That is – are the words or the music more important in a pop song? “To be sure, the music of much rap is minimal compared to, say, a Frank Sinatra ballad or George Martin’s productions for the Beatles. In the eternal roundalay of melody, harmony and rhythm, rhythm has seized the spotlight. But that is merely a reflection of the steady evolution of 20th-century popular music, led by black music, that starts out underground and eventually conquers the mainstream.”

“Violinists from Bonn’s Beethoven Orchestra have decided not to go ahead with their groundbreaking legal action in which they were suing for higher wages because they felt they played more than their colleagues in the woodwind and brass sections. [The musicians] agreed to drop their lawsuit, originally scheduled to have been heard by a labour court in Bonn on Thursday, and try and negotiate a compromise with the city authorities instead.” The violinists had been widely ridiculed worldwide for their complaint, although many of the critics seemed unaware that many orchestras already pay string players extra salary, or allow them additional time off to compensate for the higher workload.

Lloyd Schwartz says that all the breathless speculation about James Levine’s health is much ado about nothing. “Levine’s BSO performances have demonstrated no apparent diminishment of energy or quality. He conducts sitting down, but he’s far from the only major conductor to do so… Several musicians from the Met orchestra, who refused to be named, claimed that the maestro gets tired toward the end of five- or six-hour Wagner operas. Well, duh! — who wouldn’t? But has it hurt any performances? … Is this front-page news? Musicians who were happy to be identified, both from the Met and from the BSO, had nothing but praise for Levine’s musicianship, conducting technique, and energy level.”

Justin Davidson is amused by the New York Times’s breathless tone in describing the supposed physical deterioration of James Levine. “A few musicians in the Met orchestra have noticed that, halfway through a six-hour performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre, the workaholic maestro was liable to exhibit symptoms of fatigue. If so, he is still showing the strain less than one 37-year-old critic with nothing more arduous to do than sit and listen. Suddenly, we are all vicarious hypochondriacs, listening to Levine’s performances for signs of his decline.”

The Cincinnati Symphony was fretting over what was looking to be a $1.8 million deficit this season. But then an anonymous donor stepped forward to cover the entire amount. “More than anything, today is a day to celebrate the incredible generosity of this community-minded individual. It’s almost beyond comprehension, and it’s inspiring.”

The New Hampshire Symphony has announced it is close to solving its money problesm this year. “Back in February, the orchestra warned it could be forced to shorten its performance schedule or let go musicians should it fail to raise about $250,000 by June 30. Since that time, though, the position of the group’s finances has improved.”

London’s annual Proms concerts have been reborn. “Digital and web technology has not only revolutionised universal awareness of the Proms, it has become an invaluable PR tool for the BBC. If the two-month event was ever in danger of being an expensive and cumbersome weight around the corporation’s neck, the Proms are now, without doubt, its greatest cultural showcase.”

Is BBC3 giving up its commitment to broadcasting classical music? “They don’t claim to be the classical music station any more and we feel sad about that. I think they desperately don’t want that mantle.”