Category: music

The English National Opera is in deep trouble. In its latest move, the company proposes to cut a third of its chorus. “The drastic cut comes a week before the company, which is at least £1.2m in the red, puts a radical restructuring before the Arts Council in the hope of a “once and for all” bail-out. With a showdown with the orchestra looming, and vote of no confidence yesterday in the management by the singers, their union refused to rule out the threat of strikes.”

So rap music is responsible for gun violence in the UK? If that’s true, what about all sorts of other music and pop influences? “What is concerning is that, in focusing on hip-hop and gun crime, our great and good are overlooking myriad other horrors caused by pop music. Gun culture is only the tip of a vast iceberg of malaises for which pop is responsible – an iceberg upon which the ship of state might very well founder beyond salvage.”

Sony is counting on big sales by the Opera Babes to revive its classical division. “The act carries an us-against-the-world whiff of female empowerment. Some might think the message is undercut by the chests and cheekbones poking out from the CD booklet, and the slinky skirts and animal-print outfits they model in the many photos.” Perhaps the marketing is overwhelming the music?

Peter Oundjian, the Toronto Symphony’s new music director, “is the first Canadian-born conductor to lead the TSO since Sir Ernest MacMillan stepped down 47 years ago. But Oundjian left Toronto for England when he was 5, and has the accent, sporting manner and loyalties of a real public-school Old Boy. The TSO hopes Oundjian’s collegial approach, genial manner and musical acuity will restore the orchestra’s morale, which is still bruised by the 15-per-cent wage cut inflicted on it a year ago.”

“Oundjian, who has conducted the TSO three times since 1998, beat out 100 other candidates for the post. Though he’s an established musician – he played first violinist in the famed Tokyo String Quartet for 14 years – Oundjian is a relative newcomer to conducting, having taken it up seven years ago when a repetitive strain injury forced him to abandon the violin.”

“It was a skeptical crowd of journalists and members of this city’s cultural community — a tough audience — who turned out to scrutinize Toronto’s new music man. But Oundjian earned highly favourable reviews for his performance — without so much as waving his baton. During his brief appearance Oundjian managed to come across as charismatic, savvy, frank and full of confidence.”

The bankrupt Calgary Philharmonic has received pledges from the city and the Province of Alberta contingent on the Canadian government kicking in some money as well. “The orchestra has been under bankruptcy protection since Oct. 15 and did not perform for 45 days last fall. In December, it released a business plan that includes pay cuts for musicians and fewer concerts this year.”

So CD sales are down. A good deal of the decline has to be from consumers burning their own discs. But there are other reasons too: “We have brilliant new video game platforms, brilliant surround sound and brilliant wide-screen TVs all emerging in the last two to three years at very affordable price points. Music has come up with absolutely zero as a compelling alternative to those new technologies.”

Alan Rich isn’t ready to make prognostications on what an orchestra will sound like in LA’s new Disney Hall, but he’s impressed with how it looks this far into construction. “The hall itself — the ‘Ralphs/Food 4 Less Auditorium,’ it will say in modest lettering on the door handles — is close enough to completion that you can sense the intimacy of the place as compared to the Chandler Pavilion. It’s not only a matter of smaller size; it’s the contour of the room that seems to wrap itself around you.”

Canadian-born violinist and conductor Peter Oundjian will be officially introduced today as the new music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The TSO has been director-less since Jukka-Pekka Saraste quit in something of a quiet huff in 2001, and in the two years since, the orchestra has struggled with massive deficits, the threat of bankruptcy, and an ongoing dispute between the musicians and orchestra management. Oundjian, who took up conducting after an injury drove him from his place in the Tokyo String Quartet, is widely considered to be a rising star among North American conductors.