Category: music

Did the Metropolitan Opera use funds from a donor for a production of which she would have disapproved? That’s the charge from representatives of the estate of Sybil B Harrington. “He who pays the piper calls the tune, even if that tune comes from beyond the grave. It’s matter of trust, and arts organisations should take great care that cavalier interpretation of testamentary wishes doesn’t end up putting potential donors off. Meanwhile, the Met can ill afford either the Harrington executors’ demand for restitution of $5 million or the attendant bad publicity.”

Music file-swappers seem to be unfazed by recording industry threats of legal action against them. “Just 17% of swappers ages 18 and over say they have cut back on file sharing because of the potential legal consequences, according to a survey released by Jupiter Research at the company’s annual Plug.IN digital music conference Monday. And 43% see nothing wrong with online file trading; only 15% say it’s wrong.”

If it’s really true that 60 million Americans are swapping music files, and the recording industry has issued 900 subpoenas with the intent of suing every file swapper out there, how long will it take to get to all the “pirates?” According to one calculation: 2191.78 years to subpoena each person.

Ottawa’s International Chamber music Festival is the largest chamber music festival in the world, with 110 concerts in two weeks, featuring some of the best chamber groups playing today. This is the festival’s tenth anniversary, and to celebrate it staged a concert with 16 pianists performing on ten pianos… resulting in a bit of a sonic mush, writes Colin Eatock.

The recording industry wants to protect its copyrights and outlaw file-sharing. But file-sharing is a slippery technology that evolves quickly and beats circumvention. “The only solution, some say, is to legitimize the new technology, just as old record-copying technologies have been legalized, and to license file sharing itself, while also offering pay services that are far superior to peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa. The trouble right now is that technology companies like Kazaa have been trying to get licences for this music. They want to do it legitimately. They want to pay artists. The trouble is that the five multibillion-dollar record companies have refused to give them licences for the past five years…”

Chicago’s Ravinia Festival – longtime summer home of the Chicago Symphony – says it doesn’t plan to “drastically reduce its number of Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts in future seasons, despite a report suggesting otherwise in Monday’s Crain’s Chicago Business…” The festival says that “ticket sales in Ravinia’s 3,200-seat pavilion are down 5 percent so far for CSO concerts compared with last summer. But reducing the number of CSO performances is only one option to be considered when the orchestra’s contract with Ravinia comes up for renewal after next season.”

We don’t want to be cynical, we really don’t. But Monday’s announcement by the Recording Industry Association of America that its new leader will be US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s former chief of staff gives us pause at a time when Congress is trying to decide new rules for the digital age and the recording industry is lobbying for laws to keep an old power structure in place. Former RIAA head Hilary Rosen left the job earlier this year. She “had close ties to the Democratic Party, but that turns out to be not so useful now. If we get a new law relating to digital copyright, it will come through Republican-dominated committees.”

“The RIAA, the Washington trade group that represents the world’s biggest record labels, has filed more than 900 subpoenas since June 26 to gather information to file civil lawsuits against hundreds of users of file-sharing programs. Legal experts say this is the first time copyright law has been used to crack down on average consumers. Previously, copyright battles have typically pitted companies against other businesses, or against people who have intentionally tried to make money pirating copyright-protected material.”

Alex Ross writes that conductor Valery Gergiev is “the fiery angel of the Russian repertory, who has seemingly sworn not to get a full night’s sleep until Glinka’s operas are as familiar as Puccini’s.” His recent orgy of Russian operas performed at Lincoln Center wasn’t the biggest attendance driver but it made an excellent case for the golden era of Russian opera.

With a deficit of $1.3 million and a $6.5 million budget to feed, Atlanta Opera needs to raise serious cash. How? “When the Atlanta Opera recently announced plans to present pops concerts – concurrent with its main opera season – it seemed to highlight the staggering difficulties ahead.”