Category: music

Orchestras across America are struggling to stay in business. And it’s going to get worse, says Henry Fogel, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “The great economy and high stock market of the ’90s helped mask some of the problems orchestras are now facing. And watch out – Fogel predicts that ‘next year will be the worst year for orchestras, which by then will have suffered three bad years in a row’.”

The Savannah Symphony’s demise was awhile coming – the orchestra has made a series of mistakes over a number of years. “Unable to make payroll, $1.3 million in debt, demoralized by dwindling audiences and backstage squabbles, the orchestra first canceled several weeks of concerts while attempting a “rescue” fund-raising drive. When no major patrons answered the SOS, the season was declared over. In hindsight, the SSO’s death spiral started on two paths: budgetary promises made and later broken, and a triangle of acrimony within the organization.”

Opera Australia’s new director, Richard Hickox, says he’s committed to presenting diverse work in Melbourne and building the company’s stature internationally. “There is not an opera company in the world that is not under some sort of pressure and, believe me, the turmoil here is nothing like as great as most.”

Which is the best orchestra in the world? Donald Rosenberg tries to define criteria. “The temptation to line up orchestras and score them as if they were sports teams is tempting. But it doesn’t work. Art can’t be assessed on the basis of points. Every orchestra is different. Some are perceptibly better than others. Evaluating an orchestra largely has to do with style, traditions and concepts of sound. Anything else is cheerleading. Still, it is instructive and fun to listen closely to orchestras to discern the qualities that make them unusual and special.”

The Houston Symphony strike is a wrongheaded debacle that has damaged a fine orchestra and threatens to put it out of business, writes Sam Bergman. Already, musicians are slipping out of town headed to other jobs – four members have won jobs elsewhere so far – and the dismantling has already begun. No question times are tough for arts organizations everywhere, but does Houston really want to abandon one of its major cultural assets?

How can opera compete in a world of multimedia? “In an attempt to connect with a broad and unspecialized public, opera companies have sought the ministrations of directors who are inventive, fearless – and often indifferent to the music they purport to serve. These theatrical interpreters are granted liberties that musical interpreters would never take: Operas are constantly being shuttled from one era to another, causing havoc with time-bound librettos, yet the score remains more or less sacrosanct.”

“Songwriters denouncing war with Iraq are trying to speed up an artistic and political reaction that took years, not months, to gather momentum in the 1960’s. The new antiwar songs are virtually absent from commercial radio stations, where most programmers wouldn’t dream of dividing or alienating their listenership. Instead, songs are arriving from various fringes — on the collegiate indie-rock circuit, in hip-hop’s activist wing and among the heirs to folky 1960’s protesters.”

Musicians of the Houston Symphony say they’ll go on strike after Saturday night’s concert, rejecting the orchestra’s imposition of unilateral cuts in pay. The musicians had offered a compromise pay cut Friday, but the orchestra rejected it. “Our decision is a stand for the principles that we continue to espouse: that Houston deserves a world-class orchestra. It has one now. It stands to lose that now.”

The Houston Symphony has rejected an 11th-hour counterproposal by the players and “stuck with its ‘best and final’ offer of pay reduction averaging 7.4 percent across the orchestra.” On Friday, “musicians in the 97-seat Houston Symphony Orchestra instead proposed a 4 percent payroll reduction achieved through a two-week unpaid furlough and an immediate one-week salary deferral to allow the society some breathing room as it approaches a $6 million debt ceiling imposed by major foundations that contribute annually.”