Category: music

Symphony orchestras are loud (and they ought to be). But they can also be harmful to the hearing of musicians. The issue “has bubbled to the surface recently with press accounts of a new regulation imposed by the European Union that reduces the allowable sound exposure in the European orchestral workplace from the present 90 decibels to 85. The problem is, a symphony orchestra playing full-out can easily reach 96 to 98 decibels, and certain brass and percussion instruments have registered 130 to 140 at close range.”

Cellist Stephen Isserlis is fed up with audience members who snooze, cough, or forget to turn their pagers, watches or cell phones off. “I do believe that the first step has to be taken by the audience – or rather, by that usually tiny minority who believe that, contained within the right to free speech, is the right to ruin concerts. I should advise them that, if they continue to ignore the warning signals, it is only a matter of time before a musician turns truly violent; and a cello spike or a piccolo placed in an inappropriate orifice could prove to be really quite uncomfortable…”

St. Thomas’s Choir in Leipzig was once Bach’s choir, and it is an illustrious musical institution. “But the number of boys auditioning for a place in the choir has been declining for years. The choice among those boys with good voices is still large enough, but there is no longer a surplus of boys with very good to outstanding voices. And that trend didn’t develop just a few years ago.”

“Musical notes and actions have been handed down historically; they bear the signs of their use. A composer, and especially a young composer, does not have to know these signs of use. He must feel them, however, for composing also means developing idiosyncrasies and reacting hyper-sensitively. This is possibly the secret of the astronomical success that has set the tone of Matthias Pintscher’s musical career for more than 10 years and has showered him with more contracts and prizes than any other artist of his generation.”

“Passionate, unflagging champions of new music, the [Kronos and Arditti string quartets] have, between them, commissioned nearly a thousand works; that achievement alone should earn them a lasting place in music history. They have also inspired a wave of young string quartets that specialize in contemporary music, including Ethel and the Meridian and Flux Quartets in America, and the Brodsky, Keller and Balanescu Quartets in Europe. Not to mention the salutary impact they have had on the classical music scene as a whole, which has become a little less staid and a little more open.

“The Recording Industry Association of America is taking it to the streets. Even as it suffers setbacks in the courtroom, the RIAA has over the last 18 months built up a national staff of ex-cops to crack down on people making and selling illegal CDs in the hood.”

The Minnesota Orchestra declared a $2.4 million deficit last month, but there’s no need to panic. The orchestra has a popular new music director and a new executive director who arrives with new ideas and a forthrightness that impresses those who have worked with him. Of course, there’s a new musicians’ contract to be negotiated…

“Bernard Haitink has accepted the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s invitation to become ‘conductor emeritus,’ a new position and title created especially for him. Haitink, who first conducted the BSO in 1971, has served as principal guest conductor since 1995.”

An explosive memo concerning leaders of the famed Boys Choir of Harlem and how they handled a case of abuse against one of the choir’s boys, threatens to result in the ouster of the choir’s founder. “The accusations against the Turnbulls have dealt the choir and its academy a painful blow at a time when both are struggling with their finances, as they have on and off for many years. The crisis could signify the end of an era for the group, which has performed from Yankee Stadium to Tokyo, and the beginning of a decidedly shaky future.”

The restoration of Venice’s historic opera house La Fenice is completed. “In the local parlance, this house was realized com’era, dov’era–how it was, where it was. It’s as if you are walking into La Fenice for the very first time in 1837 (year after the first La Fenice, built in 1792, was burnt down and redesigned by Meduna brothers). It’s a paradox: old yet spanking new.”