“In a week when it was repeated that cassettes will no longer be sold because CDs have so secured the market, the predator that will soon swallow the compact disc flashes its teeth again. On Monday, Coca-Cola launchesmycokemusic.com, a legalised music download website for Britain, imitating Apple’s iTunes online record-shop, which itself plans a spin-off here.”
Category: music
Self Over Music
“Why do so many pianists these days insist on emphasizing their own personalities over that of the music they play? “Once a pianist, however technically gifted, forgets that he or she is the servant of the music, then any aspiration to greatness is in vain.”
LA Opera Expands With Room To Grow
Now that the Los Angeles Philharmonic has moved across the street to Disney Hall, LA Opera is expanding its season. A $48 million budget will finance a season of “premieres, revivals and stars.”
Music – Increasingly, We’re Hearing It Live
Sales of recorded music might be down in some places, but there was a lavish surge in concert-going in 2003. “I think that a lot of people have had enough of non-performing acts. A lot of the music of the 1990s was not real live performance music. The trend for real music is great news for us and great news for the industry in total.”
Tenor Walks Across England Singing
American tenor David Pisaro is walking 200 miles across England. “He will stop each evening to perform Franz Schubert’s Die Winterreise in 13 venues along the route including village halls, shops and churches with pianist Quentin Thomas. The song cycle traces the physical and emotional journey of a rejected lover travelling away from home and Mr Pisaro says he hopes his trip will bring the music to life.”
How To Win That Elusive Orchestra Job
In any given year there are few jobs that open up in full-time professional orchestras. Winning one of those jobs is a matter of determination, discipline, and sometimes, a little luck…
Buy The Music You Like
A Silicon Valley entrepreneur was tired of the contemporary music she was hearing. So she decided to buy some that she did like. She started a commissioning project, but she’s a hands-on patron…
Dance Of The String Quartet
How do members of a tring quartet keep from arguing? How do they stay togeter year after year? “Lurking behind the first question is an idealistic vision of a quartet as a non-stop idyll of glorious music-making with your friends, a working life as fulfilled and perfect as the Beethoven quartets we play. The implication of the second question is that this long and intense menage à quatre must be some sort of Strindbergian dance of death, endured by a species of subtle masochists. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between – although some groups veer towards one extreme or another, especially if they last for decades.”
Surge In Music Downloading
The number of people downloading music off the internet has surged again after several months of decline after the recording industry began suing consumers. “The number of U.S. households downloading music from peer-to-peer networks rose 6 percent in October and 7 percent in November after a six-month decline, according to a study of computer use in 10,000 U.S. households conducted by The NPD Group. In a separate, bimonthly survey, 12 million individuals reported getting music on the free networks in November, up from 11 million in September.”
London Symphony In Debt
The London Symphony has much to be proud of, and it’s held up as a shining success. Oh, one problem, writes Charlotte Higgins: “the LSO is mired in financial troubles. It is facing its first deficit in years, despite, to other organisations’ frequent exasperation and envy, being the best-funded symphony orchestra in the country.’ And all about a building?