Category: music

Christoph Eschenbach takes over the Philadelphia Orchestra. “The most optimistic forecast for the Eschenbach era is that he will deftly charm big bucks from rich patrons, give a new mission and a social conscience to the orchestra’s board and administration, and achieve a new level of visibility and stature for himself. Musically, Eschenbach could animate the magisterial qualities of the Philadelphia Orchestra with the personal vision and originality that have marked his best work.”

Will downloaders take up the music industry’s offer of amnesty? Not likely. “I would think that many of the people who have downloaded music would be concerned about their privacy rights. To put identifying information into a database that the RIAA owns will turn people off, and therefore the program will not succeed.”

Programming gets less interesting, audiences fall off, and classical music exits the radio dial. “Public radio, following the commercial lead, adopted similar ‘lite’ strategies to attract daytime audiences. But there’s an obvious paradox. ‘The more it sounds like background, the less people will be committed to your station. After all, you’re encouraging them to not pay attention to it; then you ask them to pay for it at fund-raising time. It’s a Catch-22. If your strategy is to be as uninteresting as possible, how can you ask for support?”

Why is Opera Australia retrenching? And why is opera in Melbourne such a tough go? “We know that our performances need to be 40 per cent underwritten in Melbourne for us to break even, but in Sydney it only needs to be 28 per cent funded. We sell 25 per cent to tourists in Sydney but in Melbourne the tourism sales are negligible.”

The Cleveland Institute of Music is embarking on a $26 million expansion. “If the expansion turns out as well as it’s starting to look, it could strengthen an important institution, reinforce the prominence of the arts in the local economy and boost the allure of University Circle, the cultural and educational district four miles east of downtown. That’s good news in an otherwise depressing season for architecture and development in Cleveland, epitomized by the failure of local civic and political leaders to move ahead with a new downtown convention center.”

A new opera set to premiere in 21 months has a lot of people watching already. “The combination of high-profile creators and a commission shared by three major companies – Opera Company of Philadelphia, Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit and Cincinnati Opera – could make the stakes high for all parties concerned. With luck, there will be national sponsorship to help defray the commission and development costs, plus the $4.8 million cost of the production, which will first be seen in May 2005 in Detroit and continue in July 2005 in Cincinnati and February 2006 in Philadelphia. With legs like that, the project is a likely candidate for PBS. But such matters are barely in the talking stage.”

Carnegie Hall’s new performance space, down in the basement, offers new flexibility for the groups that have traditionally performed at Carnegie. “Zankel Hall, with 644 seats, opens on Friday, and its eclectic inaugural season, with some 90 events, makes good on Carnegie Hall’s promise to provide an alternative space suitable for the widest range of contemporary repertory, including world music.”

The Canada Council has awarded two young musicians instruments from the council’s instrument bank. “For the next three years, Kaori Yamagami will play the 1696 Bonjour Stradivari cello, the most valuable instrument in the Instrument Bank, valued at approximately $6.1-million. Violinist Hou won the use of the 1729 ‘ex-Heath’ Guarneri del Gesù violin, valued at about $4.3-million.”

Who says Supreme Court justices are all law, no show biz? Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthong Kennedy and Stephen Breyer, despite their limited performing arts resumes, made rare special appearances, with non-singing roles, in the Washington Opera’s season-opener ‘Die Fledermaus’ on Saturday night.”

Universal’s plan to cut the suggested retail price of its CD’s comes with some strings that won’t endear it to retailers. “Universal’s cut turns out to be a complex proposal that comes with many conditions for retailers. In order to get a wholesale price cut, retailers would have to make concessions to Universal. Those concessions include such items as guaranteed shelf space and special promotions for the company’s releases.”