Category: music

One of the frequent charges leveled against composers over the last few decades has been that they are increasingly distant from, and even uninterested in, their audience. A special interactive concert made an effort to reconnect the two this weekend in New England: three composers each presented new works to the audience, and spoke briefly about their inspirations and objectives in composition. Then, the audience got a crack at questioning the composer, speaking up about what did and didn’t make a connection, and even asking for segments of some works to be repeated. “It sounds like the very thing that composers dread,” says Keith Powers, and yet it seems to have made everyone involved a little wiser, and a lot happier.

Mark Swed writes that while the New York Philharmonic’s move from Lincoln Center to Carnegie Hall might make financial sense for the orchestra, it isn’t necessarily good for New York music or for musicians elsewhere in America. “What is good for business isn’t necessarily good for art, the community or the country. This is a dire move, and its ramifications will be felt throughout America. At the heart of it are two important questions: Whom does an orchestra, or any major arts institution, serve? And what is its social responsibility?”

The New York Philharmonic’s move to Carnegie Hall is bad for music in New York. “The most jarring thing about this agreement is that the Philharmonic and Carnegie are merging into a single entity. Think about it. Effectively there will be no more Carnegie Hall: It will simply be the Philharmonic’s hall, which they’ll let others use from time to time. The 130 nights a year the Philharmonic will “cannibalize” in its new home will be bad news for recitalists, string quartets, popular musicians and visiting orchestras.”

“Though it gives me no joy whatsoever to say it, I’ve become certain that rock is in its last days. And I’ve started to believe that the subgenre that appears on the surface to offer rock its best hope for a full recovery is actually nothing more than a sign that death is nearer than anyone had thought. I’ve begun to believe that the far-reaching and seemingly endlessly expansive subgenre of rock-based experimental music is simply a function of the sickly old art form examining its life, noting the many things it might have been (in addition and, often, in opposition to the many things it actually has been), exploring each of them to the extent it’s capable, sighing at the thought of some missed opportunities, perhaps even registering slight pangs of regret for what it did instead (prog-rock, perhaps, or death metal, and, of course, Steely Dan).”

“Since the dawn of European music, Italy has been its chief wellspring of melody and imagination. Johann Sebastian Bach learned his craft copying out concertos by Vivaldi and claiming them as his own. Mozart wrote his operas to Italian texts by Varesco, Calzabigi and da Ponte. But the recent death of Luciano Berio leaves Italy without a single composer of world renown – indeed, without one composer whose name might elicit a flicker of ragazzi recognition in any town piazza from Milan to Palermo. Italy has become overnight a land without music, a calamity of uncalculated cultural magnitude.”

The Baghdad Symphony Orchestra doesn’t expect its future to be the first priority of the new Iraqi government, or of the occupying force of American and British troops currently running the country. But The BSO is beginning to run out of time to stabilize its organization, which has been in chaos since the war in Iraq began. The orchestra’s musicians have not been paid in months, and last week, an Italian cultural attache charged with overseeing Iraq’s cultural life failed to show up for a meeting with the orchestra’s management. To make matters worse, the orchestra is fearful that whatever new government eventually emerges in Iraq may not be supportive of classical music at all.

The San Antonio Symphony has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a vote by the orchestra’s board. The SAS struggled with its finances all season, and laid off half its office staff last week in anticipation of the bankruptcy filing. The orchestra does not intend on shutting down completely – at least, not yet – but there is no firm timetable for a return to a normal concert schedule, and the summer months may not provide enough time for the SAS to organize a 2003-04 season.

Board members of the embattled Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra are being asked to sign a “Commitment To Excellence” manifesto which states that “the board will ‘not compromise the artistic future of the Pittsburgh Symphony,’ and ‘will not accept anything less than the establishment of permanent financial stability. …'” News of the manifesto came as rumors began to circulate that the PSO is looking seriously at hiring Douglas Gerhart, known as something of a turnaround specialist in the orchestra world, as its next managing director.

Changes may be on the way for the design of the new Performing Arts Center in Kansas City, with funding concerns creating a need for a less extravagant complex. “The exterior of Moshe Safdie’s glass-and-concrete center would not change appreciably. But the new interior design… includes a large opera-ballet theater that can be transformed into an orchestra hall using technology developed since discussions about the performing arts center began in 1995. A 500-seat theater/recital hall would cater to smaller arts organizations and community theater. The existing plan… called for a 2,200-seat theater and an 1,800-seat devoted orchestra hall, with the smaller hall proposed for a future second phase.”

A major concert scheduled for Toronto and billed as a SARS benefit is drawing critical fire after it was discovered that no portion of the proceeds from the show will be earmarked for SARS relief. The concert will feature some of Canada’s highest-profile music stars, including Avril Lavigne and Barenaked Ladies, and the performers will be paid handsomely out of a $5 million fund provided by the Ontario government, but none of the provincial money will be put towards a solution to the outbreak, either. Organizers say that the concert was never intended as a traditional benefit, but as a way to get large numbers of people to come to downtown Toronto, which has been badly hurt by the perception that SARS is rampant.