Category: music

There are five major recording labels. And that number looks to be reduced in the near future. “In a sign of how bad things have become in the down-and-out music industry, most of the five biggest music companies are either up for sale or contemplating deals.”

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has declared a financial crisis. In a letter to all 76 players, musicians were told that “the gap must be closed by 2005-6 to secure a continued and viable future for the Phil. What we have become is not sustainable because it is not affordable. If the books are to balance, cuts will be inevitable, leading to possible redundancies among players and management. There are also fears that some players of less mainstream instruments may be offered part-time contracts.”

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is making progress in its fundraising efforts, says the organization’s board chairman, but there is still the potential for a serious cash crunch even before the end of this season. The PSO is prohibited by its bylaws from running a cash shortage, but its reserves are depleted an its endowment, like those of most American orchestras, has lost a full third of its value in the decline of the stock market. “It faces the daunting statistic that Pittsburgh ranks next to last for private donations among the 22 largest orchestras in the United States in per capita donations.”

“Whatever the actual effect of anti-war songs on global politics, they have long been a staple of pop culture. As evidenced by Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’, Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On?’, the Clash’s ‘Straight to Hell’ and U2’s ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, the heavyweights of rock and pop have never been slow to let us know where they stand. But, with war on Iraq now apparently imminent, where is the song to rally round the white flag?”

The hard-up English National Opera has got a plan to reinvent itself and restore its finances. But Charlotte Higgens writes that “the filleted document that has been released prompts as many questions as answers. It is full of management-speak and empty of figures. The story that has hit the headlines is about redundancies. A hundred jobs out of 500 are to go. But will this deliver sufficient savings? Redundancy deals for 100 people could cost at least £2m. Freelance singers and musicians will be hired for the bigger shows, which suggests that there will be fewer of them when times get hard. Yet it is massive shows, such as The Capture of Troy, or Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, that ENO does especially well, and come off best in the Coliseum, London’s biggest theatre.”

A $125 million expansion of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s home in the city’s downtown is drawing to a close, and the face of the new facilities which will be available to the orchestra is coming into focus. A new 500-seat recital hall will play host to a new chamber music series, featuring members of the DSO playing alongside big-name guest soloists. The smaller hall will also feature guest ensembles which otherwise might have skipped Detroit for lack of a good chamber music hall. And the new building “offers patron comforts that… Orchestra Hall, has always lacked: elevators, a spacious four-story atrium lobby, additional rest rooms, coat checks, lounges, refreshment centers and a high-tech box office.”

China has forbidden the Rolling Stones from performing four of the band’s songs at concerts in China in April. “The songs were submitted to the Ministry of Culture for approval a few months ago. They simply said ‘no’ to those four songs. They didn’t give a reason.”

Norman Lebrecht is summoned to membership in two British music institutions – one old, one new – and round-files the invitations. Why? Neither represents the state of music at its best. And neither ought to be encouraged or endorsed for its views of the musical world.

Symphony orchestras are struggling across America. “After relatively flush times in the 1990s, the current problems of the economy are taking their toll. Ticket sales are down for some orchestras; corporate sponsors are withdrawing some support; and foundations, after watching the value of their portfolios drop for several years, are reducing the size of their grants. It’s not helping that state and local governments facing large budget deficits are cutting back on their help for the arts.”

Parliamentary debate forces a whittling back a government plan to require small pubs to license live music. “Last night’s defeat by 150 votes to 120 would mean that smaller pubs and restaurants would be able to offer live entertainment as long as their capacity was below 250 people and the entertainment finished by 11.30pm.” The government’s plan was bitterly fought by musicians who claimed the plan would have cut the number of venues for live music.