Category: music

November 29, 2002

What Are We Supposed To Do Now? What are classical musicians supposed to do now that recording companies no longer want to record them? They can start their own labels, of course – but despite some admirable attempts, for the most part it’s almost impossible to get your recordings in front of consumers. “As the industry contracts, music is steadily reverting to its natural state of ephemerality: hear it live, or it’s gone forever.” La Scena Musicale 11/29/02

Alberta Orchestras Struggle To Overcome Debt The financially-troubled Edmonton Symphony whacks down its deficit by a third with a gift from a longtime supporter. Meanwhile the Calgary Philharmonic, which suspended operations last month after failing under a $1.2 million debt, says it will announce next week its plans to reactivate. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/28/02

Back For Seconds New operas are so expensive that after a first production (where interest is highest because it’s brand new) most never see a second. Yet, “a second run can be vital to the life of an opera. The established repertory is crowded with works that really took off only at their second airing.” Now William Bolcom is getting a second chance with a Met Opera production of A View From the Bridge.” The New York Times 11/29/02

Beyond Prodigy Midori has spent her adult life trying to live beyond being a child prodigy. “In many ways, she says, she has spent her adult life pushing to create the normalcy she missed as an international child star. Her image as a prodigy was carefully cultivated by those around her. ‘They would tell me things like, ‘You have to say you like classical music, you never listen to anything else’.” Christian Science Monitor 11/29/02

November 27, 2002

De Larrocha’s Last Public Concert Pianist Alicia de Larrocha, plays her final public concert at Carnegie Hall, and retires. “As departures go, Ms. de Larrocha’s appearance was unusually low-key. Not much had been made of it publicly, although her retirement at 79 was not entirely unexpected. Like any musician who has enjoyed a long career, Ms. de Larrocha has seen performance style, and the tastes that drive it, move through cycles of change and reconsideration. In the Spanish works in her repertory she has remained peerless, but in Mozart, the expansion of the early-music world and the expectations it has created have been challenges for her.” The New York Times 11/27/02

Sophie – A Surprise Choice Nicholas Maw’s new opera Sophie’s Choice has a star cast: “Sir Trevor Nunn to direct. Sir Simon Rattle to conduct. The dazzling Austrian mezzo Angelika Kirchschlager making her long-awaited London opera debut in the title role. Oh, and tickets so massively subsidised that the best seats in the house cost only £50.” Still, no one expected Sophie to be a hit, so it’s only playing five nights. And it’s become one of the season’s hottest tickets. The Telegraph (UK) 11/27/02

Watts Will Make Full Recovery Pianist Andre Watts has been released from the hospital after suffering a subdural hematoma just before a Nov. 14 concert in California. He’s expected to recover fully and resume performing. “Hemorrhages like these are fatal in 50-60 percent of people. He was in the very fortunate 40 percent of people who make it through the event. The bleeding was on the anterior part of the brain, away from the fine motor area.” Doctors describe Watts as “personable” and “Zen-like” during his hospital stay. Orange County Register 11/27/02

Spano Bows Out In Brooklyn Saying that “the energy and time the Brooklyn Philharmonic deserves are beyond my capacities anymore,” conductor Robert Spano steps down as music director of the orchestra after seven years. Spano has recently renewed his contract leading the Atlanta Symphony and becomes director of the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood next year. “As a highly regarded interpreter of new music in particular, he has been mentioned as a candidate for the podiums of leading world orchestras.” The New York Times 11/27/02

November 26, 2002

Toronto Symphony Recovers While other orchestras around North America post bad financial news, the Toronto Symphony has some good to report. Last year, the Toronto Symphony declared itself “on the precipice of complete collapse” after posting a $7 million deficit and seeing its subscription sales drop alarmingly. The orchestra’s then-executive director quit. This year’s been another story – the orchestra has reduced its deficit to $5 million and fundraising for the season was up 50 percent. National Post 11/23/02

Playing The Part What is it about the music of Arvo Part that makes its listeners become cultish in their devotion to hearing it? “According to the unsentimental evidence of record sales, Pärt’s music reaches far beyond the conspiracy of connoisseurs who support most new classical music. He is a composer who speaks in hauntingly clear, familiar tones, yet he does not duplicate the music of the past. He has put his finger on something that is almost impossible to put into words—something to do with the power of music to obliterate the rigidities of space and time.” The New Yorker 11/25/02

Seattle Bails Out Opera House The Seattle City Council has begrudgingly approved a loan of $27 million to finish construction of the Seattle Opera House. Fundraising for the $130 million project has fallen off, with expected contributions from county and state governments failing to come through. “We didn’t plan on making that loan. It sets a bad example for future partnerships that might also keep coming back for more and more money.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer 11/26/02

November 25, 2002

Adrift On A Sea Of Styles It used to be that music followed some sort of stylistic order of the day. Listeners might not agree with it, but at least there was some sort of guiding aesthetic at work. Today, there’s no sense of direction. “A decade of hard listening has produced little evidence of a shared culture, let alone a common trajectory. What is disorienting is the smorgasbord of opposites – past and future, tonal and atonal, control and freedom – that these and other contemporary works collectively represent.” Montreal Gazette 11/23/02

Anti-Piracy Measures Futile Say Engineers A group of Microsoft software engineers has concluded that digital anti-piracy measures are ultimately futile. They presented a paper this weekend that states that “the steady spread of file-swapping systems and improvements in their organisation will eventually make them impossible to shut down. They also conclude that the gradual spread of CD and DVD burners will help thwart any attempts to control what the public can do with the music they buy.” BBC 11/25/02

Met Opera Attacks Web Fan Metropolitan Opera fan John Patterson started a website called Metmaniac.com to “celebrate and annotate nearly 70 years of Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. It featured nearly complete lists of broadcasts from the 1930s to the present, but the lists were not linked to anything. It also provided a message board for opera lovers to discuss shows and buy, sell and trade tickets.” But last week, the Met sent Patterson a cease-and-desist order, which shut the site down. The company claims “the name MetManiac and the contents of the site violated their trademarks and copyrights.” Wired 11/22/02

Classical Music’s MTV? The UK’s Classic FM plans to launch a 24-hour classical music video channel. “The channel, to be launched towards the end of next month, will feature wall-to-wall video clips of prominent classical music artists and movie soundtracks. Unlike other culture-oriented TV channels, there will be no documentaries or concerts. ‘The manner and style we are adopting is of pop music TV’.” The Guardian (UK) 11/25/02

November 24, 2002

Messing With Wagner A new production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger has sparked angry boos. The staging, by one of Germany’s most progressive directors, includes an “on-stage disruption that breaks the score at a crucial moment and leads to an additional scene of dialogue.” At one point, “the music grinds to a halt, and the cast start a debate on what constitutes ‘German and genuine’. If you are a Wagnerite, this is blasphemy.” The Guardian (UK) 11/23/02

Lukas Foss At 80 At 80 years old, composer Lukas Foss still commutes weekly from New York to Boston to teach. “Twenty years ago we had this club, the avant garde, and that’s no longer really very functional. Now any style is OK. There was a time when you had to be a `12-tone’ composer to be considered Now that’s not the case. Minimal, aleatoric, 12-tone, these are all just techniques.” Boston Herald 11/24/02

November 22, 2002

Music – Good For Your Neurons A new medical study reports that “the same neural clusters that process the seductive pleasures of sex, chocolate and even hard drugs also fire up for music. There is also persuasive evidence that the brain tends to prune these neural circuits for maximum pleasure the way a gardener cuts unproductive branches to make a rose bush bloom. Music, it seems, may make the brain bloom best because it literally electrifies, at lightning speed, a web of nerve paths in both hemispheres of our cerebral cortex that connect the neural clusters processing musical pitch, rhythm, harmony, melody, short term memory, long term memory, and emotions.” Ottawa Citizen 11/18/02

A Matter Of Quality We’d Say CD sales are down because of pirating? Oh really? Maybe the downdraft is because most of the pop music out there isn’t very good. “There was a time when the release of an album was an event, and you got a lovingly prepared, carefully compiled collection of songs that contained only a couple of instances of the drummer being given his head.” Nowadays? Oh puh-lease! The Times (UK) 11/22/02

Mahler’s First Shot A newly immigrated music professor only a few weeks on the job in Israel, finds an important manuscript of Mahler’s First Symphony. It’s not the final version that made it into print, but it reveals much about the composer’s thinking process in composing the work. Ha’aretz (Israel) 11/21/02

More Than Just A Building The Los Angeles Philharmonic is a firmly establisheed orchestra, but its move into the new Gehry-designed Disney Hall next season will transform its existence. “Overall in 2003-04, the Philharmonic will present almost 50% more programming than in the past. It plans nine world premieres, a season record for the orchestra. It will present two major international orchestras, and a stellar lineup of guest conductors including Pierre Boulez, Christoph von Dohnányi, Valery Gergiev and Charles Dutoit. It will unveil five new music series from Baroque concerts to jazz and world music programs, and launch partnerships with such organizations as CalArts, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Getty Research Institute.” And oh, want to get in on opening ceremonies? It’ll cost you as much as $5,000. Los Angeles Times 11/22/02

• Conductor Swap The Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony will trade music directors for a program each next season. SFS’s Michael Tilson Thomas hasn’t led the LA Phil since 1985, when he was the orchestra’s principal guest conductor. The LA Phil’s Essa-Pekka Salonen will be making his SFS debut. “The conductor exchange is a rare event among American orchestras, whose music directors seldom guest-conduct other orchestras in this country.” San Francisco Chronicle 11/22/02

November 21, 2002

Music Giant Gets Into The Download Business Music giant Universal Music Group, the world’s “largest music company and a unit of French-based Vivendi Universal,” says it will make 43,000 songs it owns available for downloading over the internet. Individual songs will be “available for downloading and recording to a CD for US99 cents, and albums for $US9.99. The company said it was the first major label ‘to offer music fans such a broad catalogue of music tracks for preview and purchase’.” The Age (Melbourne) 11/21/02

Berlin Smells Something Rotten at Staatsoper Daniel Barenboim’s Berlin Staatsoper, the group that has supported the controversial conductor through his recent forays into Middle East politics, is facing a firestorm of its own in the wake of a bizarre and over-the-top production of Shostakovich’s opera The Nose. “In an obvious bid to be daring and provocative, the nose was represented as a phallus, a main character was a transvestite… the orchestra was togged out in gold jumpsuits and helmets like massed C-3POdrones from Star Wars… and half the chorus were depicted as Islamic terrorists led by a high-heeled, gun-toting Bin Laden.” Critics and audiences alike were unamused. Chicago Tribune 11/21/02

Dohnanyi Sounds Off Christoph von Dohnanyi, the recently departed music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, was in Boston this week to conduct that city’s orchestra for the first time since he walked out on them in 1989. As it turns out, Dohnanyi has a lot to say about the music business: he insists the walkout was no big deal; says he enjoys “some” rap music greatly; and believes that classical music will revive in the U.S. when orchestras start hiring American music directors. Boston Herald 11/21/02

Mitchell Quits the Biz Singer Joni Mitchell insists that her new album, Travelogue, will be her last. “Calling the music industry a ‘corrupt cesspool’, the Canadian rages that: ‘I’m quitting because the business made itself so repugnant to me. Record companies are not looking for talent. They’re looking for a look and a willingness to cooperate’.” The Guardian (UK) 11/21/02

November 20, 2002

Historic Music Archive Sold London’s Royal Philharmonic Society music archive has been sold – and it’ll stay in the UK after an emergency public appeal for funds. The library includes the score for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (commissioned by the Society) “as well as original scores by Elgar and Vaughan Williams, it holds correspondence from Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Berlioz, and Liszt, and, perhaps most poignantly, a letter from Beethoven announcing his intention to write a 10th Symphony to honour the society – eight days before his death in 1827.” The Guardian (UK) 11/19/02

Opera’s Newly Broad Appeal “Opera as a subject for film peaked during the silent era, when movies were accustomed to non-stop music and a kind of melodramatic posturing that’s still taken as normal on many opera stages. But there’s no current shortage of film directors willing to do opera in its usual habitat, or even to write and stage new works.” And we’re not talking about filmed versions of La Boheme, either, but new operas written by real composers in collaboration with the directors. Maybe there’s hope for the mass appeal of the high arts yet. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 11/20/02

What’s To Blame? Downloading? The Economy? Bad Music? Music recording giant EMI reports sales down 3 to 6 percent for the year. “EMI held back on new releases early in the year while it reorganized, eliminated 1,900 jobs and dropped some 400 acts from its roster, including a $28 million buyout of Mariah Carey’s contract in January.” The New York Times 11/20/02

• Music’s Betamax Making A Comeback? “For much of its two-decade long life, the CD single has existed as the music industry’s latter-day version of the Betamax tape — technologically advanced, high quality — and a commercial flop… The industry is looking to change all that. As of last week, HMV stores around the country started heavily promoting singles in their stores, encouraged, no doubt, by an industry suddenly willing to supply a product it had once been hesitant about… So why the singles pitch? The short answer is crisis, says Brian Robertson, president of CRIA, which has been studying a marked downturn in music sales. File-sharing, music downloading and home CD-burning is bleeding revenue away from the music industry at an alarming rate, he said.” Toronto Star 11/20/02

Orange In The Red Throwing a major festival of new and unusual arts and music is always a dicey proposition – throwing one in an upper-crust suburban county is beyond daring. But for the last four years, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County (California) has done just that, staging Eclectic Orange, a multi-disciplinary festival of music and theater. Unfortunately, the fest lost $434,000 on the latest festival after spending millions to bring in a French equestrian troupe, and will likely have to scale back such plans for future seasons. Los Angeles Times 11/20/02

Nashville’s New Concert Hall Staid, traditional American symphony orchestras from sea to shining sea have been going all modern with the architectural designs of their new concert halls. So wouldn’t you just know that Nashville, America’s home of country music and gaudy glitz, would spend its $120 million on an old-fashioned neoclassical concert hall for its symphony orchestra. The orchestra hopes to open the hall in 2006, and has raised more than half of the money required to build it.
The Tennessean (Nashville) 11/19/02

They May Be Broke, But They’re Good The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra might be struggling under mountains of debt (the orchestra’s executive director recently threatened that that bankruptcy would be a possibility if local donors didn’t step up the level of their fiscal generosity) and wondering how to replace outgoing music director Mariss Jansons, but out-of-town reviews of a recent East Coast tour seem to suggest that, artistically, the PSO has never seen better times. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 11/20/02

November 19, 2002

Selling Out? “Where once pop musicians and their fans were revolted at the thought of letting beloved singles be used to sell sports cars, software or beer, today’s fans are largely accepting while many musicians are eager to sign on. To some degree, this change in attitude represents a shift away from the Sixties-schooled idealism of the Baby Boomers and toward the media-savvy cynicism of Generations X and Y.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/19/02

Strategy – Overwhelming the Download Business Recording companies have been fighting downloading services, trying to discourage (or sue out of existence) those who enable downloads. Now they’re getting into the downloading business themselves. The “companies continue to use their financial muscle to slow the growth of file-trading networks and to acquire digital-rights management technologies that limit what people can do with MP3s and other files.” The plan? take control of the download market and shove the competition out to the curb. Wired 11/18/02

Looking For A Saviour The English National Opera, leaderless, £3 million in debt and about to be ousted from its home because of a costly renovation, is looking for someone to save it. Could that savioor be Graham Vick, one of “Britain’s few real world-class opera stars and a man not afraid of working with a large heap of manure?” The Guardian (UK) 11/19/02

Don’t Copy, Don’t Play Recording companies tired of seeing their new releases copied and released online even before they hit stores, are tightening security. They’re not sending advance copies out, and limited pre-release copies are digitally marked so they can be traced if copied. “With certain releases, the record companies are much more careful. Record reps are now booking appointments with me to play certain songs. I either have to hear it in their cars or in my office, or somewhere else private, and they won’t leave behind a CD.” National Post (Canada) 11/19/02

November 18, 2002

San Jose Debut San Jose’s new symphony orchestra to the stage this weekend. “Symphony San Jose’s success or failure will go a long way in determining the course of symphonic music in the South Bay. Some donors, patrons and musicians are still bitter over the bankruptcy of the 123-year-old orchestra. And even those most enthusiastic about the new orchestra are limiting themselves to a cautious embrace. `If this doesn’t happen, it’s never going to happen in San Jose ever again’.” San Jose Mercury-News 11/17/02

Vanska In The Wings What is it about Finland and music these days? Some the best, hottest young conductors are Finnish, and they’re taking oversome of the world’s leading orchestras. “There must be more conductors of international class per capita in Finland than anywhere else in the world.” Is Osmo Vanska, recently appointed music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, the next Finnish star? Washington Post 11/17/02

Suing Over A Lost Strad The Dallas-based Cremona Society is suing a New York violin dealer after he lost a rare 288-year-old Stradivarius violin made in what is known as Stradivari’s “Golden Period.” The Society had consigned the instrument to dealer Christophe Landon in February, and in April Landon reported it missing. “I do not remember putting it back into the vault,” Landon said last week. He said he has tried hypnosis to jog his memory for possible clues. Nando Times (AP) 11/17/02

Salonen Stuck On Freeway – Concert Starts Anyway With L.A Philharmonic music director Essa-Pekka Salonen stuck in freeway traffic as Friday night’s concert was scheduled to begin, assistant conductor Yasuo Shinozaki donned a pair of tails and stepped in to lead the concert until Salonen could get there… Los Angeles Times 11/17/02

November 17, 2002

Andre Watts Stable After Emergency Surgery Pianist Andre Watts never made it to the stage Thursday night. Watts was preparing to perform with the Pacific Symphony in Orange County, California, when he collapsed backstage and was rushed to the hospital for emergency brain surgery. The procedure went well, but Watts is expected to be out of commission for up to two months. Los Angeles Times 11/16/02

Thursday October 31

DOING THINGS THE CALGARY WAY: To most Canadians, Calgary, Alberta, is the Cowboy City, a remote Western outpost boasting plenty of corporate bigwigs and independent-minded entrepreneurs, but little in the way of such traditional urban accessories as culture, art, or music. That view of the city appeared to be supported by last month’s collapse of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, which closed up shop (at least temporarily) with nary a peep to be heard from the moneyed classes. One local columnist even suggested that the CPO deserved to die because his CD of the Berlin Philharmonic sounded better. But the CPO may yet have life, thanks to some distinctly Calgarian efforts from a local real estate magnate, and speculation has begun about what other work will be required to reinvigorate the ensemble. Calgary Herald 10/31/02

WATCH THE PAINT DRY LIVE! The renovation of Milan’s famed La Scala opera house is causing no small amount of controversy among Italy’s notoriously belligerant opera fans, due in large part to a modernist design which has raised the hackles of traditionalists. Now, the city of Milan has mounted a web site which will show the progress of the renovation and offer notes on the design. Andante (ADN Kronos) 10/31/02

Wednesday October 30

DETROIT SEES RED: Add the Detroit Symphony to the list of American orchestras posting deficits. The $500,000 shortfall on a budget of $28 million is smaller than other major orchestras, but it’s the second year in a row the DSO has failed to balance its books. Detroit Free Press 10/29/02

YOUNG DEFENDS HER ROLE: Opera Australia artistic director Simone Young says that contrary to reports, her planned season would not have put the company $10 million in debt. Also that the company’s board misunderstood her artistic role and expected her to also operate as a manager. In September Young was told that her contract would not be renewed. Sydney Morning Herald 10/30/02

MUSIC COMPANIES COULD ALIENATE CONSUMERS: A new survey suggests that consumers will feel alienated by copy-protecting measures by recording companies if CDs don’t play on any player they own. The survey says that “the majority of music buyers questioned believed they should have the right to make copies of CDs they have bought, either as back up or for family and friends.” BBC 10/29/02

Tuesday October 29

THE DEATH OF THE AUDIO CASSETTE: The audio cassette is for all intents dead. “The end, on some strange and intellectually picky level, of the crucial dialectic between Side A and Side B, and the idea that songs talk to one another and take you someplace. Is the death of the cassette as sweetly sad as the death, years ago, of the vinyl record? No, the professor sighs. Well, maybe yes. ‘It’s a mixed romance’… Washington Post 10/29/02

THE PROBLEM WITH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS: Symphony orchestras across America are struggling with money (or rather, a lack of it). “What’s the problem with classical music? As it turns out, all unhappy symphony orchestras are unhappy in their own way, but the answer is surprisingly consistent. “It really is ‘the economy, stupid.’ It’s affecting all those revenue sources – especially corporate, foundation, government and individual donations – that are crucial to an orchestra’s bottom line.” Los Angeles Times 10/29/02

Monday October 28

OLDER STARS ABANDON RADIO: Noticed that older musicians seem to be showing up on the tube more often? “Television – and not just MTV – has supplanted radio as the chief means of exposing new music, particularly for veteran artists. Shrinking radio playlists have less room for new music. Far more radio stations are likely to play James Taylor’s Fire and Rain, for example, than take a chance on his new single.” Nando Times 10/27/02

PLOT PROBLEM: Why are opera stories often so ridiculous? When one thinks of all the effort that goes into composing and producing an opera, it seems odd that plots are often so ludicrous. But many are classic stories, and “some stories grow over centuries – each new generation’s projections and alterations ripening them until, eventually, they become mythic. With each successful retread, a story will gain in resonance and meaning – reinforcing its power to move and inform us.” The Guardian (UK) 10/28/02

PLANS FOR COPENHAGEN’S OPERA HOUSE IN DISPUTE: Plans for Copenhagen’s new Opera House were unveiled last week, but Henning Larsen, the project’s architect, wasn’t present for the event after apparent disagreements with the owner about what the project would look like. “It’s an embarrassing situation at the moment, and it would be sad for Copenhagen if Henning Larsen resigned from the opera house project. I can’t even bear the thought. It would be like the Sydney Opera House all over again.” Copenhagen Post 10/25/02

Sunday October 27

THE MODERN ORCHESTRA MODEL: With orchestras collapsing and gasping for breath all across the continent, the San Francisco Symphony is firmly in the black, artistically sound, and universally acknowledged to be one of the most musically daring ensembles in the world. Is it the ultra-trendy city? The dynamic and flashy music director? Don’t fool yourself: the SFS is where it is due to prescient long-range planning, an unswerving commitment to its audience, and a top-notch management team which foresaw the economic collapse five years before it happened, and had a ‘Plan B’ ready to roll. Dallas Morning News 10/27/02

ARTEMIS STYMIED AT THE BORDER: The Artemis Quartet has been forced to cancel a U.S. tour after cellist Eckart Runge’s visa was held up by U.S. authorities. What would cause such governmental concern over a respected musician from a friendly European country? It seems that, 11 years ago, while a student at the Aspen Music Festival, Runge stole a 99-cent pair of tweezers from a pharmacy, which was enough to trigger a lengthy background check. The New York Times 10/26/02

NEW HOPE IN COWBOY CITY: Hold that funeral procession! The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra may yet have life, after a prominent real estate company announced plans to help the ensemble sell 700 ‘voucher packages’ to its corporate clients at $500 apiece. The company’s CEO is confident the plan will work, and hopes that other Calgary business heavyweights will follow suit with similar innovative programs, saying “My salesmen can lease and sell office buildings and shopping centres, so we think we can sell symphony tickets, too. The old form of fundraising — walking around and looking for money — doesn’t work anymore.” Calgary Herald 10/26/02

THE NEW WAVE: “Every half century, history rolls at us another wave of composers who will change the way music is heard and played. At the beginning of the 20th century came Debussy and Schoenberg, soon joined by Bartok and Stravinsky. In the 1950’s, those arriving ranged from John Cage to Milton Babbitt. Now it is time for another great sweep, perhaps going in even more diverse directions and prompted from farther out on the periphery. The 20th century’s revolutions were led from Europe and then the United States; now may come the turn of China, Australia and Latin America.” Exhibit A may be Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. The New York Times 10/27/02

• IS NEW MUSIC FINALLY POPULAR? Ever since the modernist and serialist movements of the mid-20th century, conventional wisdom has held that the concertgoing public cannot abide new music, and that any effort to program modern works must be counterbalanced with a healthy dose of ‘safe’ classics. But with the rise of accessible (and yet unquestionably serious) composers like John Corigliano, how can anyone still claim that new music is unpopular? Philadelphia Inquirer 10/27/02

REASSESSING WAGNER, AGAIN: Richard Wagner is perhaps the most bitterly debated composer in all of Western classical music. With historians constantly reassessing his role in the development of opera and the effect (or lack thereof) of his own vicious anti-Semitism on his work, the music itself can easily be lost in the shuffle. With London’s Barbican Centre rolling out a new Ring cycle this fall, concertgoers have a chance to experience the composer from all sides of the historical debate. The Observer (UK) 10/27/02

WELCOME (BACK) TO HONG KONG: “In August of 2000, some 10,000 classical music fans in Hong Kong paid US$30 each to hear Russia’s famous orchestra play a series of concerts. By most all accounts the evening was a success, with one local critic lauding the orchestra’s ‘exciting accelerandos and heart-stopping rubatos.’ The only problem was that the real Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra was touring France, Spain and Portugal at the time. A group of apparently cash-strapped musical imposters duped Hong Kong’s music aficionados.” This week, the real Moscow Phil makes its triumphant premiere/return to Taipei. Taipei Times 10/25/02

Friday October 25

ON-AIR WOMEN: Women artists have always had a tough time getting airplay on American radio stations. Until very recently, most stations had a rule of not playing back-to-back songs by women. Now 12 of the Billboard Top 20 songs are by women artists. But while it’s better, critics still claim bias. “It’s indicative of the industry that programmers don’t think that men, and especially boys, are interested in hearing what women have to say unless it’s a sexy song.” Christian Science Monitor 10/25/02

JUNKIFICATION OF THE CLASSICAL CHARTS: Simon Rattle’s new recording of Mahler’s 5th Symphony with the Berlin Symphony recently topped the Classical charts. It was the first time in a decade that a symphony held the No. 1 spot. Why so rare? Over the years the classical charts have been junked up with music that can hardly be classified as classical. “Over a dozen years, as sales slumped, the classical record industry dumped the serious stuff and embraced dubious surrogates.” La Scena Musicale 10/23/02

HOW TO STAGE AN OPERA IN 36 HOURS: The saga leading up to the Kirov Opera’s appearance in Los Angeles this week has been, well, operatic – cancellation of the originally scheduled opera, sets that floated away to Asia in a dockworkers’ strike… This week the company itself showed up in LA. “The full dress rehearsal is scheduled for 7 p.m. and for the half hour leading up to it, it is difficult to imagine that somewhere within this building there is a 280-member opera company. The halls are silent, backstage is silent, the makeup people sit outside the silent wardrobe rooms, waiting, not really knowing what is going to happen next…” Los Angeles Times 10/25/02

• KIROV REVIEW: “With the raising of the curtain, it was as though the black cloud that had hung over the first Kirov Opera L.A. tour finally seemed to lift. The Kirov company is large and full of life. The chorus is exceptional. And on Wednesday there was plenty of individuality in the performances.” Los Angeles Times 10/25/02

WHY DOWNLOADING MAKES GOOD BUSINESS SENSE: Recording artist Janis Ian says that recording companies are wrong about downloading piracy. “Attacking your own customers because they want to learn more about your products is a bizarre business strategy, one the music industry cannot afford to continue. On the first day I posted downloadable music, my merchandise sales tripled, and they have stayed that way ever since. I’m not about to become a zillionaire as a result, but I am making more money. At a time when radio playlists are tighter and any kind of exposure is hard to come by, 365,000 copies of my work now will be heard. Even if only 3% of those people come to concerts or buy my CDs, I’ve gained about 10,000 new fans this year.” USAToday 10/24/02

• BURN BABY BURN: Music fans worldwide are downloading music files and burning their own copies at an increasing pace. Traditional recording companies looking to stop the practice are getting increasingly aggressive. To fight illicit copying, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has set up a worldwide anti-piracy network, which has issued more than 10,000 prosecutions this year.” The Age (Melbourne) 10/25/02

HOUSE BAND: “House concerts are exactly what those two words say – concerts that people hold in their houses – and they’ve become something of a nationwide phenomenon during the past 10 years. While there has always been live music in homes – classical drawing room salons, rural front-porch hoedowns, Harlem rent parties, rock bands in basements – the current style of house party has flourished because of a confluence of circumstances, the primary one being the graying of the baby boomers…” Washington Post 10/25/02

Thursday October 24

HARD TIMES AT PRODIGY CENTRAL: You know the music industry has hit hard times when the president of the Juilliard School is saying things like “I’m just as much thrilled if someone gets a job teaching junior high school music as if they get a job in the Chicago Symphony.” Joseph Polisi also indicated that, with the job market in music tighter than ever, it will be essential for young musicians to find new ways of bringing music to the public if the form is to survive. Star Tribune (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 10/23/02

A NEW TAKE ON PIANO CONCERTS: A concert promoter brings his pop model to the classical piano recital. He’s pairing big stars with young “opening acts,” setting low ticket prices, performing in unusual spaces, and advertising in non-traditional (for the classical world) ways. The New York Times 10/24/02

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ORCHESTRA BOOM? Only five years ago, many North American orchestras were convinced that the future was bright. New concert halls abounded, and ticket sales were up continent-wide. These days, though, it is a rare orchestra which isn’t struggling in the grip of crippling deficits, and many smaller orchestras are finding themselves on the precipice. Case in point: the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Edmonton Journal 10/24/02

TRYING SOMETHING NEW: “Taking a small but noticeable step away from the programming habits of the city’s former orchestra, Symphony San Jose Silicon Valley on Wednesday announced its first four-concert season. Six of the 14 scheduled works are by U.S.-born composers, and there’s at least one American work on every program.” The orchestra was recently created by the San Jose Ballet to fill the void left by the demise of the San Jose Symphony. San Jose Mercury News 10/24/02

COPYRIGHT HYSTERIA: “People auction everything from stereo equipment to World Series tickets to used software on eBay. Why, then, did an indie musician who tried to hawk his own band’s CD get fingered by the site as a copyright violator?” Wired 10/24/02

LEARNING LATIN: Latin jazz has been around for decades, but it’s never had a full chair at the official jazz table. “Now several long-flowing streams of interest in Latin jazz are running together, and it seems that the form is becoming recognized as official culture in America, ready for heritage-building, specialized analysis and education.” The New York Times 10/24/02

SHORTLISTED FOR TALENT, NOT SALES: The popular music industry long ago sunk into a mire of marketing gimmickry which has had the effect of shutting the door on countless talented artists who somehow didn’t fit the profile of today’s navel-baring, assembly-line pop stars. The Shortlist Music Prize aims to swing the balance back towards talent and originality, and that mission is visible in this year’s shortlist, on which the most recognizable name belongs to Icelandic art-rock purveyor Björk. The Globe & Mail (AP) 10/24/02

Wednesday October 23

CHICAGO SYMPHONY DEFICIT: The Chicago Symphony reports a $6.1 million deficit for last season. The orchestra notes “challenging economic conditions,” and says that “even record-breaking contributions to the annual fund could not close the ‘widening imbalance’ between operating revenues and expenses.” Chicago Sun-Times 10/23/02

CANADA’S THRIVING CLASSICAL MUSIC RADIO: While classical music radio has been dying out in the United States in the past decade, “in Canada, looking over the last 20 years, there has been an obvious growth in the appetite for classical programming, as well as jazz, on FM radio.” La Scena Musicale 10/22/02

Tuesday October 22

CHICAGO LOSSES: The Chicago Symphony will announce a season deficit of at least $4 million this evening. “This is uncharacteristically bad news for an orchestra that has been happily in the black for 14 of the past 17 seasons. It also marks the CSO’s second consecutive annual deficit, following a $1.3 million dip into red ink on last year’s budget of $59 million.” Chicago Lyric Opera is also facing a downturn. To cut costs, both have dropped long-running radio broadcasts. Chicago Sun-Times 10/22/02

SINGLE-MINDED: The single record is dead of course. And yet, there have been heavy sales of a few recordings released as singles in the past year. Some believe the format should be revived. “We have been in a song-driven marketplace for a number of years, and yet the availability of singles continues to decline. When there is no way for the consumer to purchase just the one song they want, why are we all surprised that they take advantage of the widely available alternative – which is a free copy from one of the various file-sharing services?” Baltimore Sun 10/22/02

IN PRAISE OF M&M: “The worst thing about the record industry’s current infatuation with gorgeous violinists who don’t actually play the violin very well is that it steals the limelight from gorgeous violinists who do. Two of the best Midori and Viktoria Mullova – deserve attention right now.” The Times (UK) 10/22/02

COMMITMENT TO NEW MUSIC, WYOMING STYLE: The Cheyenne [Wyoming] Symphony is a long way from a major city. But the orchestra decided to present a program of music by composer John Corigliano. The orchestra invited Corigliano to town for three days, found underwriting and sponsorships, and sold out the city’s 1,500-seat civic center. “The concert was greeted with cheers, whistles and cascades of applause. Quite simply, it was a success in every way.” Denver Post 10/22/02

Monday October 21

NJ SYMPHONY RUNS DEFICIT: The New Jersey Symphony ran up a deficit of $1.1 million last season. Alarmingly, the figure is about 7 percent of the orchestra’s total budget. “The economy has basically moved orchestras from experiencing small surpluses to experiencing small deficits. I anticipate it’s a short-term phenomenon.” Newark Star-Ledger 10/18/02

OPERA IN L.A. – MISSED OPPORTUNITIES? A few years ago opera was a hot ticket in Los Angeles, particularly among the under-30 crowd. Now? “Did opera turn out to be another pop-cult fad, or did the L.A. company blow the opportunity to capture this most sought-after demographic?” Los Angeles Times 10/17/02

CALGARY PHIL DEMANDS LEADER’S HEAD: The Calgary Philharmonic, which suspended operations last week after a financial crisis, has asked for the resignation of its president. The orchestra’s future is in doubt. “The CPO’s recent aggressive marketing campaign to secure 2,000 new subscriber households by the end of October has only managed to gain about 800 new patrons.” Calgary Herald 10/19/02

• JUST SHUT IT DOWN: “The fact is that big orchestras are done for. Gonzo. They’re an anachronism, an all-but-dead corpse kept on life support by tax dollars and an ever dwindling group of philanthropists and ticket buyers.” Just shut them down. Calgary Herald 10/18/02

KNOWING WHEN TO QUIT: “Performing is a physical activity, and time takes its toll on the human body: on breath support, on lips, on strength, on coordination, on sight and hearing. Like athletes, singers and instrumentalists eventually have to come to terms with the fact that they can’t do certain things as well at 60 or 70 as they did at 20 or 30. It’s easy to stay too long, and those who do risk undermining their legacies.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 10/20/02

KEITH JARRETT’S NEW STYLE: Pianist Keith Jarrett became ill six years ago, and during the long rehabilitation when he didn’t play, Jarrett re-evaluated his art. “I didn’t like a lot of my long introductions, and there were lots of things I wasn’t happy with about my touch. My illness gave me an opportunity that very few musicians have, to re-evaluate everything. I wanted to reconnect to the idea of sounding like a horn — a trumpet or saxophone.” The Times (UK) 10/21/02

Sunday October 20

CHANGE AT THE TOP: Many of the world’s top orchestras are introducing new music directors. “All this giddy change is partly coincidence; music directors come, and they go. But a new century also generates a new zeitgeist, and that surely motivates managements, some of which have gently or not-so-gently eased out aging, long-standing conductors. And these are turbulent times for classical music institutions.” The question is – what does all this change mean? Los Angeles Times 10/20/02

OLD AND NEW – TOGETHER AGAIN: Wolfgang Sawallisch is conducting his last season as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Christoph Eschenbach takes on the job next year. This week though, they both appeared on the same stage in performance. “The program had the aura of history, with music director Sawallisch escorting Eschenbach, here as piano soloist, out on stage. You could see [Eschenbach], between piano passages, surveying his future players, taking inventory.” Philadelphia Inquirer 10/20/02

UNCOMMON CHANCES: The group Ethel is a string quartet. They play contemporary music. Often in places you don’t usually find string quartets. But don’t call Ethel a string quartet. It’s a band. “What image does a string quartet put in your head? A dour group of people playing perfectly together in perfect harmony. That’s not the path that I wanted to go down.” The New York Times 10/20/02

RUNNING ON ABOUT RENEE: Renee Fleming is the diva of the moment. She’s a breakout artist who’s fame surpasses the concert hall. “One measure of her special hold on the American public is the constant stream of feature articles that have brought her personal history into the household of anyone who watches television or subscribes to magazines. Her girl-next-door upbringing. Her initial uncertainties in finding her direction as a classical musician. Her seemingly picture-perfect marriage.. The New York Times 10/20/02

CLASSIC CONFLICTS: More musicians are also showing up as critics in Philadelphia’s music scene. Is this healthy? “It’s the classic journalism-school question. How do you stay neutral as a reporter when the best way to cover a certain community is to be part of it? You can’t easily reconcile these things.” Philadelphia Inquirer 10/20/02

Friday October 18

ROCKED THE VOTE: “The music industry’s engagement with politics has always ebbed and flowed. In the 1960s, when rock was part of a counter-culture, protest songs were both credible and glamorous. In the punk era, the Top 10 included a string of polemical singles by the Jam, the Clash and the Specials. Since then, thrilling music and political engagement have rarely coincided.” The Guardian (UK) 10/18/02

JANSONS GETS CONCERTGEBOUW: The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam has named Mariss Jansons as its new chief conductor beginning with the 2004–2005 season. The only other serious contender for the post was Christian Thielemann. Andante 10/17/02

BAZ’S BOHEME: Baz Luhrmann took two years and 3000 auditions to cast his La Boheme. It’s currently playing previews in San Francisco before moving to Broadway. Visually, it’s unconventional – teeming with “energy and characteristic Luhrmann colour. Luhrmann says his goal was to reinvent opera for a new generation; to bring it from its lofty level to mass audiences, in the way Puccini’s art was enjoyed. The opera is sung in Italian, but with English surtitles that include such Batman-era translations as Kapow!, Thwack!and @#!&% for a mock fight scene.” The Age (Melbourne) 10/18/02

Thursday October 17

BAD DAY (CAREER?): Composer John Corigliano has had a successful career in music. But he’s discouraged about his profression. “I’m so discouraged I just don’t even feel like writing in classical music or concert music, because I truly feel that we’re in a terrible state. The (classical) record industry has collapsed. No one’s interested. No one cares. Can you imagine anybody having a riot like The Rite of Spring now over any piece of art or music? Do you think they care? No one does.” Denver Post 10/17/02

LA OPERA’S EMERGENCY SETS: When the ship carrying sets and costumes for Los Angeles Opera’s production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was unable to unload its cargo during the recent dock strike, the ship turned around and headed for Tokyo, triggering a “dramatic turn of events. Los Angeles Opera officials learned there was no way to get the sets back to California in time for opening night and decided to build the sets themselves – using a 30-pound roll of blueprints flown from Russia.” Nando Times (AP) 10/16/02

CAN THE ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA SURVIVE? “The case for keeping an English national opera has been weakened by a decade of weak administration and mounting debt. The deficit, I’m reliably informed, has topped £3 million. There is no cash in the kitty for new productions and the box-office is slow. These are bleak days at the Coliseum. Even the neon roof-sign is perpetually on the blink. So why keep ENO going? Because it’s the only place this side of Paris where you can see professional opera for a fair price.” La Scena Musicale 10/16/02

EARLY WORD ON BAZ’S BOHEME: One of the most-awaited productions on Broadway this season is Baz Lurhmann’s interpretation of La Boheme. How will the director work his offbeat magic on one of the most familiar operas in the repertory? Lurhmann’s Boheme has just opened in San Francisco for an out-of-town tryout. “What theatergoers get here, from celebrated Australian film and stage director Baz Luhrmann, is an intimately scaled, emotionally attentive, visually choice and musically lucid staging of a great opera about riotous love and bohemian bonhomie.” San Francisco Chronicle 10/17/02

• EXPERIMENTS IN OPERA: Steve Reich’s new “video opera” opens at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this week. “Fat ladies won’t ever sing in this one. A chamber ensemble sits below a screen on which video images unfold depicting three seminal events in 20th-century history.” The question is: “Can it create an entrancing alternate universe that operagoers can enter and enjoy?” Philadelphia Inquirer 10/17/02

Wednesday October 16

ANOTHER ORCHESTRA GOES OUT OF BUSINESS: The troubled Calgary Philharmonic has suspended operations and filed a brief with a bankruptcy court, cancelling all concerts for at least the next 45 days and laying off 65 musicians and as many as 20 staff. Calgary’s arts scene, never exactly a bustling one, is expected to suffer fallout from the CPO’s slow and very public collapse over the last year or two, and many in the CPO organization seem surprised and disgusted that the city’s wealthy residents didn’t seem to do a lot to help when the chips were down. Calgary Herald 10/16/02

MUSICAL BIAS: The Missouri Supreme Court is considering whether to overturn the death sentence of a man who claims his jury was unfairly influenced when the prosecution played a violent rap song by Bone Thugs ‘N Harmony during summation. At issue is not only the relevance of the music to the murders the defendant was charged with, but the very real possibility that prosecutors intended to play to jurors’ racist tendencies. “If killing two people isn’t quite enough, do you think just maybe the sound of disgusting rap music might play to any unknown racial bias lurking within one or two jurors? If Mo’ Murdah helps get a man the death penalty, would a nice white lady singing God Bless America have spared him?” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 10/16/02

Tuesday October 15

CHINA PHIL EXEC ARRESTED FOR CORRUPTION: Just hours before his orchestra was to open the Beijing Music festival, the deputy executive director of the China Philharmonic Orchestra was detained by police at his Beijing home on charges of corruption. “Evidence against Zhao included 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) in cash found at his residence and six deluxe vehicles registered under his and his wife’s names, the total cost of which exceeded the couple’s present salaries by a large margin.” Andante 10/14/02

LEARNING ON THE JOB? Twenty-four-year-old Katharina Wagner, granddaughter of composer Richard Wagner, has been named by her father to succeed him running the Bayreuth festival. But in her first outing as an opera director, she’s created a controversial production. “Storms of boos, alternating with bravos, buffeted the production team at the premiere. ‘The reactions were very violent,’ Ms. Wagner said. ‘One woman said to me, `I know how Richard Wagner meant it.’ That would be a real sensation if she really did’.” The New York Times 10/15/02

YOUNG AT HEART: Two weeks ago Simone Young was fired as general director of Opera Australia. But not right away; she’ll stay on running the company until her contract is up next year. Isn’t it awkward working for the people who just fired you? Sure. But in the meantime there are operas to be produced, audiences to be made happy… The Age (Melbourne) 10/15/02

Monday October 14

BRITAIN’S FAVORITE OPERA: It’s Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, as voted in a Classic FM poll. “Wagner — whose work was almost exclusively operatic — is the most notable absentee, with no entries in the list which features just four composers.” Andante (PA) 11/012/02

COSTLY ADVENTURE: Franz Xaver Ohnesorg’s abrupt resignation as manager of the Berlin Philharmonic ended a costly adventure. Ohnesorg’s big salary must still be paid through 2006, and he exposed the orchestra to a lawsuit it is likely to lose. “This is a waste of money Berlin style, and it is the clear result of a cultural policy that has its eyes more on names and insider relationships than on concepts or programs.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10/11/02

SERIOUSLY OPERATIC POLITICS: The brief yet fierce succession crisis which enveloped Florence’s famed opera house Teatro del Maggio Musicale (formally Teatro Communale) this past month was worthy of an opera itself. The behind-the-scenes battle had all the elements of a classic operatic story: melodramatic plot twists, massive egos, a dangerous emperor (Italian P.M. Silvio Berlusconi – who says right-wingers don’t care about the arts?), a loyal but ultimately betrayed servant of the benevolent and aged head of the household, and the eventual gathering together of the working class people of the community to force a happy ending. But don’t expect these performers to be joining hands and taking a bow anytime soon. Andante 10/14/02

SAVE OUR SHEET MUSIC: “Unimpressed with the San Jose Symphony’s efforts to save its music library, the musicians have taken fundraising into their own hands. The musicians have raised more than $20,000 to preserve the sheet music, which is valued at about $125,000. The library consists of more than 1,000 marked-on scores that could be lost when the symphony declares bankruptcy in coming weeks.” The SJS ceased operations earlier this year, but a new orchestra being started by the city’s ballet troupe might be able to make use of such an extensive library. San Jose Mercury News 10/14/02

GETTING PROACTIVE WITH THE KIDS: Ask a musician about the problem of aging and dwindling audiences for classical music, and you’ll likely get an answer along the lines of “There’s really nothing we can do. They just don’t teach music in the schools the way they used to.” The Cleveland Chamber Music Society agrees with the latter statement, and is determined to do something about it. The CCMS is sponsoring a new program to bring live music performed by top artists into Cleveland’s schools, and creating an endowment to ensure that music education will not wither on the vine. The Plain Dealer 10/14/02

MUSICAL GAMES: Composer Sam Hayden has written an interactive piece of music for the internet that combines composition with video games. “3D Music extends to the Internet several important concepts in contemporary composition. For instance, it experiments with spatialized sounds, so that a listener hears different music in different locations. Surrendering control of the work’s structure to individual online visitors challenges the notion of a classical composition as a fixed entity. Letting audience members determine ‘how a piece of music sounds — to a large degree, not to a cosmetic degree — is clearly something very new and radical’.” The New York Times 10/14/02

PLAYING ALONG: When talking movies first hit theatre screens, 55,000 musicians in the US who had accompanied the silents were thrown out of work within six months. “But some musicians still make a healthy living playing along to old movies at festivals around the world.” BBC 10/14/02

COVENT GARDEN’S NEW MAN: Anthony Pappano is Covent Garden’s new music director. It’s a big and controversial position, the kind of job you have to grow into. But Pappano has confidence. “I think the house feels a new energy because I am always here and going to rehearsals and sort of going at 100 miles per hour all the time. And this opera house has needed that kind of investment.” The New York Times 10/14/02

THE TRUTH ABOUT MARIA: A doctor who treated Maria Callas for dermatomyositis, a degenerative tissue disease, is speaking out about the famed soprano’s illness more than 25 years after her death because, he says, he has been incensed by ongoing portrayals of Callas as a disturbed prima donna who retired from the stage as a result of mental instabilities. The doctor further asserts that the diva’s death in 1977 came not as a result of heartbreak (her husband abandoned her to marry Jacqueline Kennedy) but from a heart attack brought on by her disease. Andante (AP) 10/14/02

Sunday October 13

BEVERLY’S BACK: Was it really only six months ago that Beverly Sills resigned her post at the head of New York’s Lincoln Center, following a contentious debate over the complex’s impending expansion and renovation? At the time, Sills said that she was retiring, and wanted to “smell the flowers a little bit.” But apparently the quiet life wasn’t all it was cracked up to be for Sills, 73, who has just accepted the chairmanship of the Metropolitan Opera. The Met is, of course, Lincoln Center’s most powerful tenant, putting Sills smack in the middle of the same debates she so recently bowed out of. The New York Times 10/12/02

FREE CDs FOR IMMUNITY: “In New York last week the Big Five record companies struck a deal with the attorneys-general of 40 US states who were suing them for price-fixing. The Five agreed to give five and a half million free CDs to schools and public libraries after being accused of setting mimimum CD prices at three major retailers… Anomalies like these have provoked parliamentary inquiries in Washington, London and Brussels, but never a full prosecution. Governments do not mess with the music biz. It is too big, too generous at election time and too influential on young minds for politicians to risk a coalition of gangsta rappers, country crooners and opera divas converging on their doorstep in cacophonous protest. The biz has always got away with it in the lobby. Now, the US prosecutors have backed off again in exchange for a stack of free discs.” La Scena Musicale 10/10/02

GREED KILLED THE RADIO STAR: With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Lyric Opera both killing off their local and national radio broadcasts, the Second City’s classical music community is in danger of losing cultural cache and national recognition. Critic John van Rhein, who this weekend celebrates 25 years of observing the Chicago music scene, is disgusted by the lack of vision from all sides. “The classical music world is reaping the bitter fruits of American orchestras having priced themselves out of the broadcast and recordings market. The free-spending ’90s are dead — musicians in other cities have swallowed hard and accepted it. Chicago has yet to do so.” Chicago Tribune 10/13/02

NOTHING HAPPENS BY ACCIDENT: To hear many people tell it, you would think that the recent resurgence of opera as a popular art form has happened purely by chance, and that the increasingly young age of opera patrons is due to nothing more than youngsters wandering into the opera house by accident. Not so: in fact, opera companies across North America have been making a concerted effort to draw in a more diverse crowd. The Canadian Opera Company is a prime example, with an ‘Opera 101’ education program, as well as a continuing series of classic operas directed by famous names like Atom Egoyan. Toronto Star 10/12/02

KNOWING WHAT’S IMPORTANT: As deficits mount and cost-cutting measures spring up at orchestras across North America, one of the hardest expenses to justify is the international tour. Short-sighted board members often question whether touring is an investment with no return, and the orchestra’s regular patrons hardly notice whether their band tours or not. Besides that, touring is horribly expensive. Yet some orchestras seem to retain an unshakable commitment to it, and one example you might not expect is Baltimore. In the wake of 9/11, as other orchestras were cancelling international travel in a panic, Baltimore went to Europe without hesitation. Now, the BSO has just wrapped up a sucessful Japan tour, and continues to make inroads on the international scene. Baltimore Sun 10/13/02

FORGOT ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE: No word yet on the acoustic success of the newly renovated Orchestra Hall in Detroit (only a pops concert has been played at the refurbished hall so far) but patrons already have found one serious flaw. It seems the hall refurbished the audience chairs in order to bring them up to fire codes, and installed new cushions as well as the legally mandated ‘weight bars’ on the back edge of each seat. The problem is, the cushions don’t cover the bars, and many patrons came away from the performance with sore hind quarters as a result. The orchestra says that fewer than half the seats are affected, and they are offering extra cushions to any patron that wants one. Detroit News 10/12/02

FILLING DUTOIT’S SHOES: The Montreal Symphony Orchestra is one of the world’s finest ensembles, with or without departed music director Charles Dutoit. But when an orchestra loses a leader of Dutoit’s stature, regardless of how the musicians may have felt about him, no one can deny the importance of choosing a successor carefully. This is not to say that the next Montreal stickman needs to have Dutoit’s international reputation or global experience, only that the conductor chosen must be someone willing and able to grow with the orchestra, to lead them into a new era without relinquishing a grip on the last 25 years of unquestionable success. Toronto Star 10/12/02

MUSIC AMID THE MUDDLE: This week, Shanghai launched an incredibly ambitious international music festival, and predicted that the huge gathering would ‘make history.’ The reality, says one critic, was that the city and the festival organizers were completely unprepared to put on a show of such magnitude. “The level of incompetence is hard to understand in a city that resembles a bizarre cross between the sci-fi optimism of Dan Dare and the dystopian nightmare of Blade Runner… How many Chinese men does it take to change a light bulb? Eight. This is not a joke. I happen to know the answer because I watched it happen. China is a country whose full employment policy creates ludicrous levels of over-staffing and a pass-the-buck culture.” The Telegraph (UK) 10/12/02

FAME CAN BE FLEETING: “Hey! You’ve won the prestigious Van Cliburn piano competition! What are you going to do now? Answer: Go to Bakersfield; Allendale, Michigan; Hot Springs Village, Arkansas… Life isn’t concertos at Carnegie Hall for Van Cliburn winners. After getting showered with attention and fame, finalists begin a two-year grind of recitals and mostly low-key orchestra dates. Even with all the hype, winning the Van Cliburn doesn’t guarantee stardom.” San Jose Mercury News 10/12/02

Friday October 11

SHORT-TERM RELIEF IN PITTSBURGH: The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which is running a 7-figure deficit and threatening bankruptcy if the community doesn’t step up its support, finally has a bit of good news to report. “Acusis, a technology and delivery service company with offices in Pittsburgh, has pledged $225,000 over a three-year period to the PSO.” Officials say they are grateful for the donation, but stress that they still require a greater ongoing commitment from Pittsburgh’s wealthy classes. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 10/11/02

L.A. OPERA’S PRODUCTION WOES: Los Angeles Opera is having a tough time getting its October opera together. First it canceled a $3-million Kirov production of War and Peace because of money problems. Now its replacement – another Kirov offering, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk – is in trouble. Because of the lockout of West Coast ports, the sets, costumes and props for the production couldn’t wait in LA’s harbour, and now they’ve departed “on a slow boat to Tokyo.” Los Angeles Times 10/10/02

SEATTLE OPERA HOUSE BAILOUT: In 1999, Seattle voters approved a levy providing nearly $30 million of city money towards the $128 million renovation of the Seattle Center Opera House, and were guaranteed that the city would not be responsible for any cost overruns or additional funding needs. But with the project nearly stalled over a gap between anticipated and received funding from King County and the state of Washington, Seattle’s mayor is proposing an additional $27.8 million “loan” to the Opera House. That’s money the city is unlikely to get back. Seattle Times 10/10/02

YEAH, AND NAPSTER CAUSED THE RECESSION, TOO: The global slump in CD sales is getting worse, with the latest figures showing a 9% drop in sales in the first half of 2002, following a 5% drop last year. It’s all the fault of internet piracy, according to the industry, with free song-swapping sites “the greatest threat facing the music industry today,” but the industry still hasn’t come up with anything approaching a user-friendly legal alternative to free sites like Kazaa and Gnutella. BBC 10/11/02

UNDERSTANDING PYOTR: Tchaikovsky’s music is much loved, but his work is widely regarded as sentimental and lightweight. Is it a bum rap? “The industry of speculation around Tchaikovsky has had an ambivalent effect on his artistic reputation. Tchaikovsky’s cachet is good for shifting CDs and concert tickets, but it leaves us with the impression that listening to Tchaikovsky is a pleasurable vice to be indulged rather than the kind of worthy artistic undertaking we associate with Mozart or Shakespeare.” The Guardian (UK) 10/11/02

ONE WAY TO PUT BUTTS IN THE SEATS: The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is taking a novel approach to filling the empty seats at Roy Thompson Hall. The TSO has teamed up with HurryDate, a local dating service, to provide prospective couples with a pair of free tickets to a concert, in the hope that some of them will return as paying customers. The gamble is just the most high-profile in a series of audience-building maneuvers by the TSO: others include a “Soundcheck” program designed to draw in young people, and a cocnerted effort to interest the city’s immigrant communities in classical music. Toronto Star 10/09/02

AUSTIN OPERA FIRES DIRECTOR: Last week Austin Lyric Opera fired its general director Joseph McClain. “Budget deficits and advocacy of new operas had created friction between McClain and factions on the board for at least two years. The dismissal was predicated on recent projections that the company would face more deficits for the next three years.” Austin American-Statesman 10/10/02

NATURALLY, IT WAS A COLLEGE STUDENT: The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra says it has solved the mystery of how pornographic phrases got into an internet database, and by extension, onto the computers of their subscribers when they attempted to listen to a promotional CD sent out free of charge by the NZSO. A college student playing the CD in his girlfriend’s computer was prompted by the database to enter titles for the tracks, and he did so, believing his graphically descriptive phrases were only being saved to one computer. Upon hearing what he had inadvertently done, the student turned himself in to police. No charges will be filed. Wired 10/11/02

Thursday October 10

DON’T PUNISH OPERA COMPANY OUSTED DIRECTOR SAYS: Simone Young, who was told a few weeks ago her contract as director of Opera Australia was not being renewed, returned to Sydney Monday night, and got a standing ovation from the audience when she walked into the hall. She urged opera supporters not to cancel their subscriptions in protest of her firing. “If people want to support me, then the best thing they can do is make sure my performances are full, that all our performances are full.” The Age (Melbourne) 10/10/02

WAGNER TO TAKE OVER WEIMAR: Nike Wagner, granddaughter of Richard Wagner, has been chosen as director of the Weimar Music Festival for at least three seasons. “Ms Wagner, a former culture minister in the Hamburg regional government, was also considered in 1999 to take over the Bayreuth festival, which showcases her great-grandfather’s works.” BBC 10/09/02

GOOD AS NEW: The Detroit Symphony Orchestra returns to its home hall this week following a $60 million renovation project which promises to make the venue a viable home for many years to come. Unlike other recent renovations to concert halls, this upgrade was mainly cosmetic, rather than acoustical, although part of the budget went to the building of a new 4-story annex with a 550-seat theater and musicians’ lounge. In a bittersweet concession to the way American orchestras are run these days, the first performance at the rejuvenated hall will be a ‘pops’ concert this weekend. Detroit News 10/10/02

WHAT, US, WORRY? “In a difficult financial environment for symphony orchestras, the Florida Orchestra has bucked a trend. In the fiscal year that closed at the end of June, the orchestra reported a surplus of $480,000 in a cash budget of $7.8-million at its annual meeting Tuesday. The Florida Orchestra didn’t have the weakened ticket sales that many other orchestras did after the terrorist attacks of last Sept. 11,” and a pre-9/11 round of budget cutting may have helped the orchestra stay above the red line. St. Petersburg Times 10/09/02

OH, GOD, NO: “A Russian opera company is planning a comic opera that will tell the infamous story of Monica Lewinsky and the president. The Russian president, to be precise. The composer of Monica in the Kremlin is Vitali Okorokov, a classically trained musician who is well known to the Russian public for his pop hits. After a performance of one of his symphonic poems, Okorokoc was approached by the artistic director of the Saratov Opera, who asked him to write an opera on a contemporary subject.” Andante 10/10/02

Wednesday October 9

AMERICAN MUSIC ONLINE: One of the biggest frustrations for composers is getting their music out to be heard. The American Music Center proposes some help – a new website that will make available access to the work of American composers. “New Music Jukebox offers a 24-hour ‘virtual’ listening room with streaming and downloadable sound files, as well as extensive composer biographies, works lists, publishers, performance data and other information, all cross-referenced.” The New York Times 10/09/02

AND OFFLINE… It had to start happening, given the grinding economics. Citing costs, lack of revenues, and uncertainty over royalty rates for music streamed over the internet, Chicago classical music station WFMT has decided to drop its internet streaming. Chicago Sun-Times 10/08/02

OPERA WARS: British arts policy tries to promote opera in parts of the country where there isn’t much. So regional companies get big subsidies. But bad facilities and lame programming choices undercut efforts. And knockoff foreign touring companies are an even bigger threat. “Audiences, depressingly, seem content to hear foreigners singing familiar tunes loudly, with scenery and costumes left over from the silent-film era.” The Telegraph (UK) 10/09/02

OHNESORG JUMPS FROM ANOTHER JOB: Franz Xaver Ohnesorg’s early departure as manager of the Berlin Philharmonic is officially for “personal reasons.” But “it was common knowledge that Ohnesorg, who left his previous post as executive director of Carnegie Hall suddenly and prematurely following two turbulent years, had provoked the ire of many in the course of his year in Berlin.” Andante 10/09/02

Tuesday October 8

X-RATED CLASSICAL: The New Zealand Symphony sent out 8000 promotional CDs to market its new season. But when recipients of the discs put them into computers to play, they discovered that someone had substituted the track titles with pornographic descriptions of sex acts. “It seemed the person responsible used an Internet media player to read the CD, made the changes and saved them on the database. This meant that whenever anyone else used a media player connected to that database, the X-rated version was displayed.” The Age (Melbourne) 10/08/02

FIGHTING OVER BEETHOVEN’S PIANO: Two Austrian museums are fighting over a piano that once belonged to Beethoven. The piano – built in 1803, and owned by the composer until 1824 – has “for the past 15 years been in the exhibition of musical instruments at the Palace Museum of the City of Linz. But for most of that time, the Vienna Museum of Art History has been trying to get it back.” Andante (DPA) 10/08/02

WHICH BEST IS BEST? The Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London exists to spot new talented conductors and help them along. But by what criteria do you declare a winner? From a listener’s perspective, the wrong guy won… The Independent (UK) 10/07/02

ORANGE COUNTY DELAYS CONCERT HALL: The Orange County Performing Arts Center is pushing back the opening of its new $200 million concert hall by a year. But it’s not because fundraising has dried up, says the center’s management. “About $100 million has been raised or pledged since the campaign began nearly three years ago. But, amid a plummeting stock market and other economic woes, only $3.5 million in new donations has been announced in the last 12 months.” No, the reason is acoustical: “Because of its complex acoustical engineering, they said, the 2,000-seat hall requires a break-in time of three to six months to ‘tune’ it for peak sonic performance, and pushing to keep to the original schedule would have risked getting off to a bad start. ‘A lot of cities have looked at the Philadelphia experience and are making sure they have plenty of time for the tuning period’.” Los Angeles Times 10/08/02

Monday October 7

TOUGH SELL IN SOUTH FLORIDA: For 30 years orchestras have struggled in Miami trying to carve out an existence. And still, even with an ambitious new performing arts center rising, it’s a tough sell. “The Miami Philharmonic did some interesting things and remarkable playing in its time. But South Florida wasn’t ready to support an orchestra then – and I’m sorry to say I’m still not sure it’s ready to do it today. Besides that, the economy isn’t very good right now.” Miami Herald 10/06/02

WILL MONTREAL FANS STICK AROUND? Charles Dutoit’s explosive departure last season from the Montreal Symphony resulted in the high-profile cancellations of star soloists Mstislav Rostropovich and Yo-Yo Ma on this season’s schedule. The orchestra is watching anxiously to see if its fans will continue coming to concerts after the departure of the highly regarded conductor. After a good first week, the orchestra’s second week of concerts saw largely empty houses… Montreal Gazette 10/7/02

ACTIVE ANALYSIS: “To understand the significance of music for the musicians who created it and the society in which it was produced is a challenge to music-lovers. Perhaps no writer on music devoted more energy to this task than Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno, and the translations into English of his writings on philosophy and music and their diffusion have been multiplying in recent years while, at the same time, his ideas have become widely influential in the US and Europe.” New York Review of Books 10/24/02

Sunday October 6

LATIN CAN’T FIND THE BEAT: This year’s Latin Grammys broadcast was a bomb in the ratings. Does this mean the end? “It would be a shame if this year’s poor ratings meant the end of the Latin Grammys. The awards have made a strong contribution to Latin music, acknowledging excellent artists we may never have heard of otherwise. Finally, Latin music was starting to get its due. But at this point in the Latin Grammys’ brief history, it’s time to either give up or get smart.” Los Angeles Times 10/06/02

HOUSTON SYMPHONY WANTS TO REDUCE PAY: Musicians of the Houston Symphony say they are being offered a dramatic pay cut that would reduce their base salary to $63,000 from $74,100. Reports have been circulating in the music community about proposed drastic cutbacks in pay that could lead to a strike. According to an administrator at one Houston arts organization, the offer includes several weeks of unpaid vacation and reduction of health benefits for dependents.” The orchestra recorded a $1.6 million deficit last season. Houston Chronicle 10/04/02

NEW SAN JOSE ORCHESTRA: With the defunct San Jose Symphony not likely to be revived any time soon, the the Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley has announced it’s staring its own orchestra and planning a season. The new orchestra will perform 7 concerts and expand the ballet’s orchestra of 45 players to 70 to 75. Many of those musicians also played in the San Jose Symphony. San Jose Mercury News 10/05/02

A HARD LOOK AT ORPHEUS AS IT TURNS 30: The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is 30 years old, and the musicianship of the conductorless band is often nothing short of breathtaking. But big challenges loom, and some of the orchestra’s claims are overblown. “Can Orpheus survive the turnover of personnel in the orchestra? Thirty years is an eternity for a string quartet but not that long for a symphony orchestra. We’re somewhere in between.” The New York Times 10/06/02

A NEW MODEL FOR RECORD DEALS: It does seem that EMI’s £80 million deal with Robbie Williams is just one more sign of recording company excess. But the deal may not be as outsized as it first appears. And it could change the way recording companies make deals with artists. “EMI will not only release Williams’s next six CDs, it also gets a cut of his lucrative merchandising, publishing, and touring rights. In effect, it becomes a multi-interest entertainment business rather than a mere record label. The result could be more control for artists, for long a sore point with stars of Williams’s stature, and greater financial security for labels.” The Guardian (UK) 10/05/02

• BAD NEWS FOR CLASSICAL? Classical music lovers despair at the Williams deal. Experience shows that big spending on pop artists means less for classical releases. “EMI insists this is “nonsense”, and cites a balanced catalogue ranging from Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, to Nigel Kennedy and Vanessa Mae.” Still, ten years ago EMI released 100 classical recordings; last year there were 43. The Guardian (UK) 10/05/02

Friday October 4

CLEVELAND ORCH CUTS CHAMBER SERIES: Back when the epidemic of orchestra deficits began sweeping North America, many observers assumed that the crisis would be tough on the small and medium-sized orchestras, but would barely cause a ripple among the biggest and richest ensembles. It didn’t work out that way, and now, nearly every major American and Canadian orchestra is slashing and burning through the budget, looking for cost-saving measures. The latest victim is the Cleveland Orchestra’s chamber music series, which will be suspended as part of a cost-cutting package which also includes a staff wage freeze and pay cuts for the new music director and executive director. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 10/04/02

ZUKERMAN TO GET FIRST STERN AWARD: At the National Arts Awards in New York later this month, conductor and violinist Pinchas Zukerman will be the recipient of the first-ever Isaac Stern Award for Excellence in Classical Music. Zukerman, who has stirred up controversy in Canada in recent years with his comments about Canadian composers and “authentic” period performance, was one of Stern’s most beloved proteges, and often performed with him in Stern’s later years. Ottawa Citizen 10/04/02

ANOTHER THING WRONG WITH THE RECORDING INDUSTRY: After losing millions and having to buy out Mariah Carey from her recording contract, EMI has signed a deal with Robbie Williams worth by some estimates – £80 million. That’s the most lucrative contract ever for a British artist. Does EMI stand a chance of ever making its money back on the deal? Not likely… The Telegraph (UK) 10/04/02

THE CHECK’S IN THE MAIL (NOT): When the Washington Chamber Symphony ceased operations earlier this year, many of the folks in charge seemed to vanish into the ether. Months later, subscribers want to know where their ticket refunds are, and the WCS’s creditors are wondering when they’ll be paid as well. Meantime, the people who seem to have run the orchestra into the ground may be too busy pointing fingers at each other to figure out just how the defunct organization can pay off its debts. Washington Post 10/04/02

CRUNCH TIME IN CALGARY: The musicians of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra have offered to take a 12.3% pay cut to keep the orchestra solvent for the rest of the season. It would be the second time in two years that the musicians have taken a large pay cut, but even that may not be enough to save the CPO. Massive deficits and a lack of enowment funds have the orchestra on the verge of folding operations. CFCN-TV (Calgary) 10/02/02

20 SHORT YEARS WITHOUT GLENN GOULD: “If you’re reading this at 11: 30 a.m., it is precisely 20 years since Glenn Gould left this life… Gould must be seen as Canada’s greatest contribution to classical music, as his work continues to inspire a seemingly endless stream of books, films, documentaries and miscellaneous other monuments and remembrances in all corners of the world. He once said that be didn’t believe anybody would come to his funeral. Three thousand people did, and every day many thousands more continue to pay homage to the man by listening to his music over and over again.” Ottawa Citizen 10/04/02

Thursday October 3

JANSONS NEGOTIATING WITH CONCERTGEBOUW: Outgoing Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music director Mariss Jansons has confirmed that he is in negotiations with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, considered to be among the top five orchestras in the world, to become its new chief conductor. Jansons has also signed on to lead the Bavarian Radio Symphony in Munich, and says that he will limit his conducting in the near future to those two orchestras, plus those of Berlin, Vienna, London, and Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 10/03/02

• TANGLEWOOD WEST? For decades, wealthy Philadelphians have headed north to the Pocono Mountains in the summer to while away the hot Pennsylvania days at one of the luxury resorts in the area. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that one of the state’s two major orchestras is building its new summer home there. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, most recently in the news for deficits and (probably) idle threats of bankruptcy, hopes that its Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts will eventually rival Tanglewood in Massachusetts and Ravinia in Illinois as one of the nation’s great summer music retreats. Certainly, the location can’t hurt: Bushkill, Pennsylvania is 85 miles from New York City and 115 from Philadelphia. (Of course, it’s 320 miles from Pittsburgh.) Philadelphia Inquirer (AP) 10/03/02

WHO NEEDS TASTE IF TASTE DOESN’T MATTER? Those who try to assign the blame for a decline in classical music are usually looking in the wrong places, writes Harvard composer Joshua Fineberg. “The lesson that has been taken from Cage and Duchamp is that if traffic noise and toilet seats are equal to Mozart and Rembrandt then so are Garth Brooks and black-velvet Elvis paintings. This view quickly leads to taste being the only legitimate arbiter. In the cultural realm this rapidly leads to the downward homogenization of taste toward the least common denominator, a phenomenon that makes almost everyone vaguely uncomfortable.” Salon 10/02/02

(ALMOST) FREE SAMPLES: In an attempt to lure consumers back to buying music rather than pirating it, British recording companies have declared Digital Download Day. The scheme “will today offer consumers £5 worth of free downloads from one of five official music sites. More than 100,000 tracks will be available, ranging from Elvis and Coldplay to Kylie and Gareth Gates. For £5, users will be able to listen to 500 tracks online, download 50 tracks on to their hard disk or burn five tracks on to a CD.” The Guardian (UK) 10/03/02

HELP WANTED – INSPIRATION: The English National Opera is looking for a new director. It’s a desirable job (if you can overlook the unfortunate demise of the last incumbent) “True, there’s a bit of financial sorting-out to do – but we are are pretty confident that we can achieve that. And the company will have a fantastic new home in 2004.” So who are the early contenders? Well, almost anyone you can think of… The Guardian (UK) 10/03/02

CMF NAMES NEW DIRECTOR: Catherine Underhill has been named executive director at the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder. The CMF has consistently been one of America’s top summer music festivals, but has struggled with attendance and budget issues in recent seasons. “Underhill, 46, has worked as executive director of the Arts and Humanities Assembly of Boulder (AHAB) and of the Boulder’s Dairy Center for the Arts.” The Daily Camera (Boulder) 10/03/02

ROLLING RIVER: Saint Paul, Minnesota, is a charming little city constantly overshadowed by its more cosmopolitan twin, Minneapolis. So when promoters told city leaders that they wanted to stage a massive arts, film, and music festival on Saint Paul’s increasingly popular riverfront, sponsors and politicians were lined up to support it. But the Rolling River Festival crashed and burned before a single act took the stage, and wound up being basically a smallish film festival showing at various strip-mall-style suburban theaters. Worse, the festival’s organizers are facing accusations that they built up expectations based on nothing more than talk, and never had anywhere near the amount of cash which would have been required for such a large-scale operation. Saint Paul Pioneer Press 10/03/02

BARENBOIM THE PEACEMAKER: Israeli conductor/pianist Daniel Barenboim, who has made waves in the Middle East twice in recent months, has co-authored a new book with Palestinian intellectual Edward Said calling for peace in the region. “The book, titled Parallels and Paradoxes, grew out of conversations between the two friends, both prominent cultural figures who first met a decade ago by chance at a London hotel… Last month, [Barenboim] and Said were named the winners of Spain’s Prince of Asturias Concord Prize for their efforts toward bringing peace to the Middle East.” Andante (AP) 10/03/02

Wednesday October 2

HOW BIG MUSIC IS RUINING MUSIC: The music industry is broken. As this week’s $143 million price-fixing settlement shows, big music companies have colluded to artificially inflate the prices of CD’s. Artists are attacking, demanding better contracts and a bigger share of the profits. And instead of fixing anything, the companies blame the people who consume their products. And we should feel sympathy because… Chicago Sun-Times 10/02/02

SF OPERA IN THE RED: Blaming a downturn in the economy and lower attendance since 9/11, San Francisco Opera announced a $7.7 million deficit for last season on its annual operating budget of approximately $60 million. It was the company’s biggest financial shortfall in a decade. The company warns that “in the long term, the economic picture might compel the company to raise ticket prices and possibly even curtail some of General Girector Pamela Rosenberg’s more ambitious – and costly – artistic plans.” San Francisco Chronicle 10/02/02

MUSIC FROM A CAN: Something about the music you’ve been listening to this year that doesn’t seem quite real? “More than two-thirds of the No. 1 hits this year have been by manufactured artists, who have been hand-picked and groomed for stardom by record company talent-spotters, or in television pop contests.” Maybe that’s one reason music sales are down 7 percent this year… The Scotsman 10/01/02

GRIN NOT SMILING: It’s been almost a year since the San Jose Symphony shut down operations. Civic leaders are trying to restart the orchestra, and there’s plenty of talk about how to revive the organization. But there’s one man nobody seems to be talking with – Leonard Grin, the orchestra’s music director. “I’m not involved in any of those committees. I never have been invited to any of those meetings. It’s surprising and frustrating. Who better to help on these committees than the conductor?” San Jose Mercury-News 10/02/02

LABELLING FOR LEGISLATION? Some US Congressmen want the recording industry to include more information in parental advisory warning labels on CD’s. They may be able to force the issue too. “Rep. John Shimkus, Republican of Illinois, said the music industry should improve its labeling to prove its sincerity as it asks Congress for help to fight music swapping over the Internet that hurts record sales.” The Plain Dealer (AP) (Cleveland) 10/02/02

DEUTSCHE OPER DIRECTOR TO QUIT: Deutsche Oper director Udo Zimmermann is quitting the company after his contract expires next July. Zimmermann says he “found himself unable to continue ‘his sophisticated artistic concept in the Deutsche Oper beyond the 2002-3 season,’ in part because of the Berlin’s poor financial condition and the opera’s $1.7 million deficit. Washington Post (AP) 10/02/02

Tuesday October 1

CD SELLERS SETTLE PRICE-FIXING SUIT: Top American music distributors and retailers have agreed to pay $143 million in cash and CDs to settle charges they cheated consumers by fixing prices. “The settlement brings to a close accusations made by attorneys general of 41 states and commonwealths who accused record companies of conspiring with music distributors to boost the prices of CDs between 1995 and 2000.” Nando Times (AP) 10/01/02

BIRMINGHAM WINS: The City of Birmingham Orchestra, stepping neatly out of the long shadow cast by its ex-music director Simon Rattle, has won Gramophone’s recording of the year, beating – among others – Rattle’s new orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic. The Guardian (UK) 10/01/02

REFORM NEEDED FOR MUSIC SCHOOLS: A new report suggests radical reform of England’s music schools. “Backed by leading figures from music and the arts, including Sir Simon Rattle, it concludes that a new range of decidedly non-classical skills should be on the curriculum – including business and technology studies and a knowledge of contemporary styles, including jazz and world music. Nine out of 10 professional musicians are self- employed, it says, and most can make a living only by turning to teaching, session work and composition, as well as traditional concert hall performances.” The Observer (UK) 09/29/02

WINNING FORMULA: Naxos, the budget classical music label, is 15 years old. While other recording companies abandon classical music, Naxos has thrived. “As the pioneering budget-priced CD label, Naxos secured a market foothold it has never lost. With the release of 500 CDs annually and sales of 10 million, it is now the largest classical label in the world. ‘Making a CD today costs not even one dollar. So we can even sell in China, where CDs sell for $2 or $3, and make a small profit’.” Toronto Star 10/01/02

WHEN REHEARSALS GO WRONG: Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company replaced its lead soprano for the opening night performance of Queen of Spades last week after the singer flew to Armenia to her father’s death bed three days before the production’s dress rehearsal. Though she returned in time for the rehearsal, the company replaced her, saying they had told her not to go if she couldn’t be back well in advance of the rehearsal. and that she wasn’t prepared. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/01/02

RATTLE’S NEW REGIME: Simon Rattle has only recently taken over as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. But his presence is changing the very nature of the world’s most celebrated orchestra. “It’s amazing that this collection of 130 very disparate and opinionated people is able to smell the changing of the seasons, almost like an animal. Many of us felt that there was no way to stop the clock, or turn it back.” The Times (UK) 10/01/02

Monday September 30

CONDUCTOR SEARCH: A search that drew 362 contenders, lasted 20 months and extended all over the world produced a pair of winners Saturday night at Carnegie Hall for the conducting competition run by Lorin Maazel and Alberto Vilar. “A 28-year-old woman from Beijing who learned music on a piano handmade by her father, and a 31-year-old man from Bangkok, where Western classical music is rarely played, shared the top honors and $90,000.” The New York Times 09/30/02

BOOING GREETS WAGNER: Katharina Wagner, the 24-year-old great granddaughter of composer Richard Wagner, has long been touted by her grandfather Wolfgang as the member of the family to eventually take over Bayreuth. So interest was high last week for Katharina’s directing debut, at the helm of Der fliegende Holländer. “There was indeed much tutting and shaking of heads through the two-and-a-half hours.” Germany’s leading critics were in attendance to witness the vociferous booing that erupted as the curtain fell. Andante (AFP) 09/29/02

WORD VIRTUOSITY: Freestyling is “a phenomenon born out of the hip-hop movement that, unbeknown to many Americans, has been thriving along the outskirts of most metropolitan areas for more than two decades. High school students and middle-aged performers alike freestyle, but what began predominantly in Oakland and Brooklyn has moved to cafes, high schools, and community street corners across the country.” It’s a mix of words that comes out in a form somewhere between speech and song, and the intonation is punctuated by rhyming phrases. Christian Science Monitor 09/28/02

Sunday September 29

THE PRICE OF SILENCE: Should Mike Batt have paid a reported £100,000 to settle a claim by John Cage’s estate for royalties on a Batt “composition” that consisted of one minute of silence? After all, how can you own the rights to silence? Or even the idea of silence? Batt is philosophical: “We’re going to sell more records, we’ve had fun with this, and I thought, I’ll pay some money over to show goodwill – but of course the royalties remain mine for the future.” The Telegraph (UK) 09/28/02

SAY HEY MIMI! Director Baz Luhrmann is producing a Broadway version of La Boheme, “polishing a dusty classic with so much manic elbow grease that it doesn’t just shine but gives off a highly marketable bling-bling sheen. The production is in rehearsal for a San Francisco tryout before moving on to a six-show-a-week schedule in New York. “With Boheme we want to de-theatricalize the production because, if anything, opera these days is overdone and tired in its level of theatricality. We want to make it accessible, clear.” San Francisco Chronicle 09/29/02

RELEARNING HOW TO BE A MASTER: When Oscar Peterson suffered a stroke in 1993, he lost some of the lightning-fast reflexes that had allowed him to play with such velocity and facility. But , “as often happens, adversity had a silver lining: Peterson, whose playing was dismissed by some elites as overly glib, was forced to change. He says he stopped chasing so many notes and began thinking more about melody. He started to pay attention to less obvious elements of the music, altering harmonies ever so slightly, peering deep into the structures of a tune for inspiration. He gradually developed what he considers a whole new approach.” Philadelphia Inquirer 09/29/02

Friday September 27

STARS AGAINST NET PIRACY: “Full-page ads are scheduled to appear in newspapers today and will be followed by television and radio spots, urging consumers to stop downloading songs from illegal file-sharing sites on the Internet. The multimillion-dollar campaign coincides with hearings before the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on courts, the Internet and intellectual property.” Washington Post 09/26/02

INDIANAPOLIS WINNER: Hungarian violinist Barnabas Kelemen, 24, has won the $30,000 top prize in the sixth edition of the quadrennial 2002 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Indianapolis Star 09/23/02

ON THEIR OWN: With recording companies all but giving up on classical music, musicians are producing their own discs. “Self-published CDs may never make a massive impact on the classical-record industry, especially in terms of sales, but some observers believe their artistic impact may be lasting.” Christian Science Monitor 09/27/02

TAPPING LISTENERS: With a large endowment and significant corporate support, the Pittsburgh Symphony has never been aggressive about cultivating individual donors. But “last season, corporate fund-raising revenues dropped significantly and the faltering stock market decreased the value of the PSO’s endowment.” So now the orchestra will target individuals for money, and if it can’t raise $500,000 in new money by the end of the year, “the orchestra may take cost-cutting measures that could diminish its artistic quality and reduce its educational programs.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/27/02

Thursday September 26

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS IN PHILLY: The Philadelphia Orchestra sold 99% of its available seats last season after opening up a beautiful new concert hall in the heart of a thriving entertainment district. The orchestra is ending a successful run with music director Wolfgang Sawallisch, and eagerly anticipating the arrival of new baton-twirler Christoph Eschenbach. But even in Philadelphia, the economy is taking it’s toll on the bottom line – the organization ran a $3.5 million deficit last season, and it’s endowment has dropped to $68.5 million, one of the smallest among major U.S. orchestras. Management envisions boosting the endowment to $150 million in the next 5 years, but those numbers are awfully optimistic… Philadelphia Inquirer 09/26/02

MUSICIANS WANT PROTECTION FROM RECORDING CONTRACTS: A group of high-profile musicians has asked California lawmakers to “intervene and protect them from what they say are unfair contracts that give recording companies the opportunity to withhold royalties with impunity.” The musicians called standard recording company contracts “dishonest,” “indecipherable” and “laughably one-sided” because they favor the companies at the expense of musicians. Nando Times (AP) 09/25/02

AND BY ‘LOST,’ WE MEAN ‘STOLE’: The Cremona Society, which collects and distributes rare instruments to musicians who need them, is suing New York-based Christophe Landon Rare Violins for negligence and breach of contract after the dealer lost a 288-year-old Stradivarius violin he was supposed to be selling. According to the suit, Landon allowed visitors to his shop to play the instrument unsupervised, and did not adequately protect it. The violin has been missing since April, and no clues have been found as to its whereabouts. Andante 09/26/02

HEAD-TO-HEAD IN EDMONTON: Last winter, when the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was thrown into turmoil by a mounting deficit, the firing of a popular conductor, and a musician strike over management incompetence, deposed music director Gregorz Nowak vowed to start his own rival orchestra in the city and steal away many of the ESO’s musicians. These days, things are a bit more peaceful at the ESO, but Nowak, to the surprise of many, has made good on his threat, starting a new chamber orchestra called Metamorphoses which will present a 10-concert series this season. Edmonton Journal 09/20/02

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE STOP. PLEASE? Having tried lawsuits, logic, heavy-handed enforcement, and threats of record labels hacking into your computer at night, the music industry is now turning to pleading in an effort to stop illegal music downloads. Full-page ads in leading American newspapers are signed by multiple high-profile singers and bands, and the whole thing has something of a desperate air. Meanwhile, the legal battle continues apace, from Congress to the courts. Wired 09/26/02

• MULTINATIONAL AVOIDANCE: The Australian Kazaa file-trading service is successfully avoiding the legal entanglements faced by other services like Napster by setting up operations around the globe. It has offices in the United States, the South Pacific island nation Vanuatu and the Netherlands, and so far has evaded legal attempts to shut it down. Wired 09/25/02

SAN JOSE MIGHT LOSE MUSIC SCORES: Bankruptcy is not going well for the San Jose Symphony. It looks like the orchestra might lose its music library, accumulated over 100 years of performances – “more than 1,000 scores, some irreplaceable, all with conductors’ and players’ markings” to satisfy creditors since the orchestra has failed to raise enough money. San Jose Mercury News 09/25/02

Wednesday September 25

LEARNING TO PAY FOR PLAY: Pay sites where customers can download music for a fee are starting to attract users. “The shift away from peer-to-peer services and toward pay subscription sites like EMusic and Rhapsody is a result of two coinciding developments in the online music world. First, the music industry’s crusade to disable illegitimate file-sharing services has won significant victories. At the same time, Internet radio stations have fast been disappearing because of new copyright laws, lobbied for by the record industry, requiring that broadcasters pay royalties on the music they play.” The New York Times 09/25/02

Tuesday September 24

A TANGLE OF RIGHTS: Major media industry websites that are offering legal downloads have so far been spotty in their selection. It’s a rights issue. “The Internet services, which are so far generating almost no revenue, are facing a chicken-and-egg puzzle. For many music publishers and artists, even a large slice of such a tiny royalty pie is barely worth the administrative costs of issuing a license. Still, without those licenses, the pie is unlikely to grow.” The New York Times 09/23/02

INVESTING IN THE BAND: The recording industry is less and less willing to take chances on bands they don’t think will sell at vleast half a million recordings. So a Philadelphia band called Grey Eye Glances has sold shares in its next recording to get it produces. “Through a private offering, the ‘adult alternative’ band raised several hundred thousand dollars to start the Grey Album, a company responsible for producing, manufacturing and promoting Grey Eye Glances’ seventh album, A Little Voodoo. For bands without obvious mass appeal, strategies like Grey Eye Glances’ may be part of the future.” The New York Times 09/23/02

FREEDOM REIGNS: Boston Lyric Opera holds two free performances of Carmen over the weekend and attracts 140,000 fans, more than the company draws in the rest of its season. Time to rethink how the company does business. ”We do believe there are people who will never be able to buy a ticket to go to opera. And therefore we must always find a way to provide free opera to the community.” Boston Globe 09/24/02

NATIONAL HERO: What would have been Glenn Gould’s 70th birthday is being celebrated in big fashion in Canada. CBC is “devoting hours of coverage on radio and television to celebrating and remembering Gould’s life and accomplishments. Tomorrow, CBC Radio Two celebrates Gould with 14 hours of coverage, titled Variations on Gould.” National Post 09/24/02

• A ROAD NOT TRAVELED: Pianist Glenn Gould – who would have been 70 this week – is “a figure of legend, even among people who may have heard nothing more than his first, career-making recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. His life and ideas have provided fodder not just for scholars and biographers, but for playwrights, novelists and filmmakers. But while Gould’s influence is feted in the broad culture, it has almost evaporated among musicians. No major pianist follows his lead, either in performance style or in his cavalier attitude toward musical scores.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/24/02

THE COST OF SILENCE: Mike Batt included one minute of silence on his latest album, and called it One Minute of Silence, listing himself and John Cage as the authors. Cage’s estate sued the rock musician, claiming Batt had violated the copyright to Cage’s 4′ 33″, a silent piece. Now Batt has paid the John Cage Trust a “six-figure” fee to settle the case. A spokesperson for the Trust said “the publishers were prepared to defend the concept of a silent piece because it was a valuable artistic concept with a copyright.” Nando Times (AP) 09/24/02

• HOMAGE OF RIGHTS: “I can see Mike’s side, but I think he should see our side more clearly. He is a creative artist—he has a vested interest in a system that protects creative work—so in some ways he’s sawing at the legs of the very stool he’s sitting on.” The New Yorker 09/23/02

Monday September 23

THE NEW ROY THOMPSON: So how about that acoustic renovation up in Toronto? Is the rejiggered Roy Thompson Hall the new Carnegie? Well, no. But it’s a lot better. “There’s a deeper pool of resonance in the bass, and a more vibrant tone up top. The sound hangs in the air a bit longer, instead of fleeing before it can be properly savoured… What the room still lacks, and may never achieve, is that immersive, “wow” quality you get in a truly first-class hall.” But that would have been too much to expect, even from superstar acoustician Russell Johnson. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 09/23/02

I (DON’T) WRITE THE SONGS: Is pop music less inspired today because the stars don’t write their own music? Not really – pop has always been controlled as a business. “The relationship between pop idols and the people who supply their songs is at best an uneasy alliance. As with any industry, the key to profitability boils down to control of the assets – in this case, the songs. When it’s the singer, this autonomy brings with it a certain degree of volatility. Or, if you like, the artistic clout to make terrible business decisions.” In business terms, it’s better for the execs to decide the business. The Guardian (UK) 09/22/02

LOOKING FOR MEANING IN MEGA-OPERA: Bad sound, poor sight lines, huge artistic compromises, and a loss of any theatrical intimacy – big arena stagings of popular operas have attracted thousands in recent years. But are the compromises worth it? The Times (UK) 09/23/02

M-A-R-I-A: It’s 25 years ago this week that Maria Callas, the greatest diva of all, died. She “could fairly be described as one of the greatest global celebrities of the post-war era. Everything about her life became the subject of intense interest, to the point of obsession. But the story of Callas is itself the story of obsession. Legends abound about her hunted personality, her relentless drive for perfection in everything that she did – brought about by a huge inferiority complex.” The Scotsman 09/22/02

HOW ABOUT BUILDING ONE FOR THE PRESENT? “Canadians will be able to take a simulated train voyage through the country’s past, immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of “the concert hall of the future” and gaze at displays dedicated to prime ministers and Order of Canada recipients, according to documents obtained by the Citizen that reveal the federal government’s $100-million plans for a Canadian History Centre at the old railway station in downtown Ottawa.” Yes, that was the Concert Hall of the Future, designed to “encourage visitor participation in and experience of the performing arts and Canadian culture in a novel and meaningful space using wall-sized interactive display technologies along with state of the art sound and visual capabilities.” Ottawa Citizen 09/23/02

Sunday September 22

WAITING FOR VILAR: Two more prominent opera companies are reporting that Alberto Vilar, the billionaire businessman who is the world’s leading private supporter of opera, has failed to make payments on pledges to their organizations. The Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the Los Angeles Opera have not received expected checks, increasing speculation that the heavy losses Vilar sustained in his high-tech investments may have left him unable to continue his previous level of support. Vilar insists that the money will be there, and says his fiscal tardiness is purely temporary, a result of short-term cash flow problems. The New York Times 09/21/02

WHEN YOU’RE IN A HOLE… The board of Opera Australia has been taking quite a beating in the press since announcing its decision to fire music director Simone Young because she refused to scale back her plans for the future of the organization. So this weekend, the board attempted to explain itself, in the hopes that public opinion might turn in management’s direction. Sadly, the best clarification OA’s chairwoman could come up with was to point out that the board had been unanimous in its decision to sack Young, and to announce that the decision “was several months in the making.” The Age (Melbourne) 09/20/02

GIVING VERIZON ANOTHER CHANCE: When the Philadelphia Orchestra moved into its new home at the Kimmel Center last winter, reviews of the sound in Verizon Hall were mixed at best, abysmal at worst. The Washington Post called the hall, which was supposed to finally give the Fabulous Philadelphians a sounding board to match the orchestra’s reputation, ‘an acoustical Sahara.’ But the orchestra’s two regular beat writers say Verizon, which is billed as the most adjustable concert hall ever built, needs to be given a second listen. “It’s a pretty good hall. It is not a great hall in its current form. It is continuing to evolve, and changes made last week put it within striking distance of being a wonderful music room.” Philadelphia Inquirer 09/22/02

ADAMS IN NEW YORK: This week, the New York Philharmonic premiered John Adams’s new 9/11 commemorative work, On the Transmigration of Souls, which might be said to be a project for which the composer of such politically inspired fare as Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer is perfectly suited. David Patrick Stearns has heard it three times already: “It was shattering. Utterly. The audience reaction? A bit muted. Hard to read – aside from a few visible hankies. The gala-ish atmosphere of the occasion wasn’t really apt for this premiere, given the inevitable presence of listeners who are there just to be there. On the Transmigration of Souls needs to be presented, somehow, to those who need it.” Philadelphia Inquirer 09/21/02

A NEW BEGINNING IN TORONTO: Two decades ago, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra took up residence in the dramatic surroundings of Roy Thompson Hall. Sadly, the hall’s architectural splendor was never matched by its acoustics, and this past year, after years of debate and recrimination, the TSO teamed up with world-renowned acoustician Russell Johnson for a dramatic, CAN$20 million overhaul of the performance space. This weekend, the orchestra once again moves into its familiar home, hoping finally for a concert experience that sounds as good as it looks. Toronto Star 09/21/02

GOING OUT WITH A BANG: Vladimir Spivakov, the ‘stopgap’ music director of the Russian National Orchestra who was informed earlier this summer that his contract would not be renewed when it expired next year, has resigned in spectacularly public fashion, following the RNO’s first concert of the new season. Spivakov cited disagreements with management in his decision to quit, and in fact informed the media of his resignation before telling his musicians. Who will take his place at the head of the Moscow-based orchestra for the remainder of the season is unclear. Andante 09/21/02

PUSHING THE CITY LIMITS: Long before anyone had heard of O Brother, Where Art Thou, the movie soundtrack which sparked a roots-music revival, there was Austin City Limits, a low-budget, fly-under-the-radar live music show broadcast on PBS stations around the country, and featuring the same performers now enjoying such unexpected attention from the masses. This weekend, Austin City Limits goes big-time itself, with a two-day outdoor music festival expected to draw 40,000 fans to the Lone Star State’s capital city. Dallas Morning News 09/22/02

MELLOWING WITH AGE: “Colin Davis spent years in the ‘amateur wilderness’ and was known for his fiery temperament. He suffered personal and professional upheavals – he once booed his audience from the stage – but went on to find success abroad. At 75 he is now recognised as one of the UK’s finest conductors.” Did the change come with maturity, or with the realization of a sea change in the music world, with power shifting from conductors to musicians? Or did Davis merely decide that all the bombast got in the way of his real mission of making great music come alive? The Guardian (UK) 09/21/02

SAMPLE OR STEAL? ‘Sampling’ is a defining component of hip-hop music, and the practice, in which artists excerpt bits of another musician’s work and incorporate them into their own music, has been in wide use for at least two decades. But those being sampled aren’t always happy about it, and, though most high-profile rappers take great pains to secure permission for their sampling, clashes are inevitable. In the latest sampling scandal to hit the courts, a California jazz musician is suing popular rap act Beastie Boys for a flute solo they sampled ten years ago. Los Angeles Times 09/22/02

Friday September 20

ENOUGH TALK, LET’S HEAR SOME MUSIC: After what seems like years of debate and discussion among critics and concertgoers, Loren Maazel debuted this week as the New York Philharmonic’s new music director, presenting a conservative but carefully chosen all-Beethoven program. Anthony Tommasini liked what he heard generally, but “Mr. Maazel’s technical command has usually involved a trade-off. His performances can be oddly willful, as if just because he has such ready control, he can’t help exercising it.” Furthermore, Maazel’s decision to drop John Adams’s bold new work commemmorating the 9/11 attacks from the opening night program (it was performed at all subsequent programs during the week) was “a mistake and a great missed opportunity.” It seems Maazel will have quite a hill to climb to win over his detractors in New York. The New York Times 09/20/02

• MEANWHILE, IN CLEVELAND… While all eyes seemed focused on New York for Loren Maazel’s debut with the Philharmonic, Franz Welser-Möst was making his first appearance as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, arguably America’s finest ensemble of the moment. Haydn’s massive oratorio, “The Creation,” is an unusual choice for a debut, but “Welser-Möst conveyed the music’s beauty and depth with a direct, decisive hand. He has inherited an orchestra in prime shape whose classical traditions are miraculously right for Haydn, though the new music director will need to make more of the ensemble’s ability to clarify and articulate detail.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 09/20/02

WAS MUNCH A NAZI COLLABORATOR? Like many who lived in France during World War II, conductor Charles Munch (later the distinguished director of the Boston Symphony) claimed to have been aiding the French Underground. But an article in a current Skidmore College publication plants Munch squarely at the center of collaborationist Vichy culture in Paris during the war. ”He was a superstar of the cultural scene of occupied Paris who made the transition without missing a beat to the postwar scene in Boston.” Boston Globe 09/19/02

ANOTHER WAY FOR ORCHESTRAS TO LOSE MONEY: “A founder and ex-chairman of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta has been charged with stealing about HK$220,000 (currently US$28,200) from the government-funded orchestra while he was chairman, Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption announced last week… Yu was arrested last July for allegedly embezzling HK$6.2 million (US$795,000) by issuing checks under the orchestra’s name to himself, his wife and daughter, but was never charged.” Andante 09/20/02

BITING THE HAND THAT FAILS TO FEED: Days after press reports surfaced suggesting that Alberto Vilar, opera’s most dedicated and generous patron, would be missing payments on some of his pledges, the Washington Opera has removed his name from its young-artists donor list after a $1 million payment was not made. “Rumors have circulated for months that losses at Vilar’s Amerindo Investment Advisors… would hamper Vilar’s ability to fulfill his philanthropic pledges. Vilar has rescheduled some payments and said in the [New York] Times that in some cases he was ‘not on top of the status of the payments.’ But several large recipients of Vilar’s philanthropy either declined to discuss his giving or confirmed that he was on schedule with payments.” Washington Post 09/20/02

Thursday September 19

SANZ TAKES LATIN GRAMMYS: “Alejandro Sanz, who dominated last year’s Latin Grammys, swept its major categories on Wednesday night, taking home trophies for album, song, and record of the year.” Nando Times (AP) 09/19/02

ROCK ON: Some critics “have gotten whole books out of the notion that when rock ‘n’ roll passes from an expression of unbridled youthful rebellion to professionalism and nostalgia, it ain’t worth a damn anymore. But rejecting the still-living possibilities of classic rock bands relies on an attitude toward rock that deifies it and demeans it simultaneously. Better to look at it for what it is: For its makers, it’s both a job and (probably) a pleasure. The real conundrum is not, Why do these grizzled fools go on? but, Why aren’t they all on the road nine months of the year, every year?” Salon 09/19/02

ANOTHER ORCHESTRA SEES RED: In the past decade the Seattle Symphony has been one of the more financially secure American orchestras, expanding dramatically with a new concert hall and lengthened season. The winning streak ends though as the orchestra posts its first deficit ($719,000) since the early 90s. The orchestra blames an economic downturn that reduced gifts from individuals and corporations. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 09/18/02

ORCHESTRA OVER INTERNET2: For the first time ever, Internet2 – which “transmits at the speed of light (and is rarely seen by the public because only scientists and universities use it)” was used to transmit a symphony orchestra concert across the country. The New World Symphony played in Miami, while composers Aaron Jay Kernis in Minnesota and John Adams in New York talked about their music “It worked like a charm.” Miami Herald 09/17/02

SABOTAGE HALTS PARIS OPERA OPENING: Opening night of Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Paris’ Palais Garnier was sabotaged when someone planted a tape player and speakers inside the opera house that began playing scenes from the opera while the performance was underway. Eventually the performance was halted until the recording could be found and silenced. The New York Times 09/18/02

THE FUTURE IS ASIA: The list of woes facing classical music in North America and Europe is well-known and growing. But in Asia, Western classical music is booming. Fresh artists, and young and knowledgeable audiences suggest a vital future. London Evening Standard 09/18/02

NEW DRUG LAW TARGETS MUSIC VENUES: An anti-drug bill expected to easily pass in the US Senate has got nightclub music venues upset. The RAVE Act would “broaden federal standards for prosecuting venues under the so-called crack-house laws, which were designed to stamp out crack cocaine dealers. It would also add stiff civil penalties. The bill specifically targets dance-music venues, whether they are temporary outdoor raves or established nightclubs.” Miami Herald 09/18/02

VILAR LATE ON GIFTS: There are reports arts philanthropist Alberto Vilar has fallen behind on promised pledges to arts groups. “Because Mr. Vilar’s Amerindo Technology Fund has decreased by nearly 50 percent each year for the last three years, there has been wide speculation in the arts world that he would default on several of his extravagant pledges to cultural organizations. There is uneasiness in classical music circles, for example, that Mr. Vilar may be late on payments to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Salzburg Music Festival, the Kirov Opera and Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and that he may have failed to pay for the supertitles he had installed at the Vienna State Opera.” The New York Times 09/19/02

Wednesday September 18

U.S. REFUSES ENTRY TO CUBAN MUSICIANS: Twenty-two Cuban musicians nominated for Latin Grammys have been denied visas by US officials and won’t be able to attend Wednesday night’s Latin Grammy Awards ceremony. The State Department declines to comment. Newsday (AP) 09/18/02

THINKING TOO BIG? Opera Australia isn’t saying anything more about its decision to oust artistic director Simone Young last week. But it appears that it was her grand “vision” for the company’s 2004 season that was the cause, and not some of the other reasons that have been speculated on. Meanwhile the company says: “Simone Young is a great asset but this company has a long tradition of great people such as Charles Mackerras, Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge … they have all invested in making the company what it is today. The company has a proud history and it will go on.” The Age (Melbourne) 09/18/02

• INEPT MEANS: The way Opera Australia’s board terminated Young was curious. The decision was made without talking to her first, and then delivered while she was out of the country. How inept. “What we have still to discover is whether the board members are, collectively, high-minded and thoroughly worthy dabblers or mean-minded, ruthless dabblers intent on the conspicuous exercise of power; or whether – in managing this announcement – they are merely inept.” Sydney Morning Herald 09/18/02

MUSICIANS FIGHTING RECORDING COMPANIES: Musicians’ revolt against the deals they sign with recording companies is heating up. “The RIAA has positioned this as a bunch of rich old rock stars seeking revenge and better deals. The truth is, this system would not be suffered in any other business. You have record companies bought and sold on the strength of copyrights created by artists who sign away all rights in perpetuity to a faceless corporation. In the past 20 years, an industry that was led by visionaries and music lovers has become dominated by accountants, financial analysts and people who can’t think ahead more than 90 days.” USAToday 09/17/02

BARENBOIM ATTACKED: Conductor/pianist Daniel Barenboim, in the Middle East giving concerts, was attacked in a restaurant in Jerusalem Tuesday. His attackers called him a “traitor for giving a performance in Ramallah on Tuesday. (His wife responded by throwing vegetables at the activists). There were also reports that right-wing politicians had proposed that Barenboim should be put on trial for entering the occupied territories without permission.” Ha’aretz 09/18/02

PERSONAL APPEAL: Why is the Pittsburgh Symphony in financial difficulty? While it’s been successful over the years getting support from corporations and foundations, it hasn’t cultivated individual donors. So when corporations pulled back because of the economy, and foundations saw their endowments shrink, the orchestra didn’t have a strong individual base of supporters on which to draw. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/18/02

• SOME COMPANY: Pittsburgh’s other arts institutions are also struggling financially. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/18/02

Tuesday September 17

WHY TODAY’S PIANISTS ARE BORING: Are pianists today less interesting than in years gone by? Sometimes it seems that way. “Some solo pianists do scarcely more than travel, practise, give concerts and eat and sleep. On such a treadmill, it is very hard to remain fresh and interesting. To look for illumination from today’s international soloists is a bit like looking for a lost object in a place where you know it can’t be.” The Guardian (UK) 09/17/02

LIFE SUPPORT: The financially troubled Calgary Philharmonic has launched a desperate ad campaign, saying if it doesn’t attract 2000 new subscribers by next month the orchestra will go out of business. ” ‘This may be our last season,’ reads one print ad, under the heading Save Our Brass. Another ad features instruments hooked up to defibrillators.” National Post 09/17/02

BUY THIS: So that pop song you heard on the radio sounds more like an ad jingle than a legit song? Well yes, actually. “Mars Australia and its advertising agency, D’Arcy, are behind the new single, Get Your Juices Going, by fictional pop group Starburst. ‘We wanted to try and get the song as high on the charts as we can. We held off letting people know it was an advertising campaign’.” The Age (Melbourne) 09/16/02

FEE FOR VISA REVIEW: At a time when it’s getting harder to get visas for foreign artists to perform in the US, it’s also getting more expensive. The American Guild of Musical Artists says it will start charging a $250 fee to review visa applications for companies applying for visas for foreign artists. Backstage 09/16/02

Monday September 16

OPERA AS CHAOTIC EXPERIENCE: Francesca Zambello is the first American invited to direct at the Bolshoi Opera. Mounting Turandot on the historic stage is a different experience from doing it in the West. “Money is scarce. Ingenuity great. The other day, I suddenly realized there were no TV monitors in the wings backstage so my chorus could see the conductor while they are lying down looking at Peking’s moon. Instead there were five conductors in the wings waving large flashlights. Not surprisingly, the chorus didn’t sing together. What to do?” London Evening Standard 09/13/02

THE LITERARY POP SONG: There has been a rash of prominent writers writing lyrics for pop music bands. “Salman Rushdie has recorded with U2. Hunter S. Thompson appears on the new Paul Oakenfold album. Will Self has worked with Bomb the Bass…” Why? Some believe musicians are looking for a little more substance for their songs. Others are more cynical: “A lot of it is happening because books are much cooler than music, and can sell a lot more.” The Age (Melbourne) 09/16/02

STYLE CLASH: Was the firing of Opera Australia artistic director Simone Young a matter of an artistic vision too big for the company’s pocketbook? Perhaps. “The artistic leader of any company has the right to pick and choose, but it is understood that Young’s perceived abrasive management style has caused rifts within the company. Whether it is this, or simply Young’s refusal to compromise on her artistic vision, that has brought her down, is unknown. It is worth remembering, though, she has repeatedly said things must go her way or she would walk.” The Age (Melbourne) 09/16/02

• YOUNG DEFENSE: Young’s defenders come to her defense: “The [OA] board has made Simone a scapegoat for internal and financial difficulties without any effort of mediation. It waited until she was working overseas. No one from the board has the nerve to face her. It’s similar to how Maina Gielgud was treated at the Australian Ballet.” Sydney Morning Herald 09/16/02

LISTENING TO MUSIC – JUST NOT TO CONCERTS: An American study on who listens to classical music and why offers some comfort for those who fear the artform is dying – there’s a sizeable market for classical. “The bad news for symphony orchestras is that the traditional concert-hall experience is not the primary way these people relate to the art form. According to the study, people connect with classical music by listening to the radio first and foremost, followed by playing CDs in their cars and living rooms. Down the line is the attendance at live events in churches, schools and, yes, even concert halls.” Hartford Courant 09/16/02

GIRL SINGERS TO THE RESCUE: It’s to the point you can’t hardly find a definition of country music that’ll stick to the wall. “By now everyone who cares even casually about true country music knows the story of how Nashville was taken over by evil robots – it happened sometime in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s or ’90s, depending on who’s telling the story – and of how country radio subsequently went to hell in a multimillion-dollar handbasket. A subthread of the story is the gradual flowering of alt-country.” But there are signs that the women of country music might be up to saving country as a genre. Salon 09/14/02

OUT WITH THE CD: With music sales down last year for the first time since 1983, there are signs music fans are tired of the CD format. “Several similar-looking formats appear poised to replace the standard compact disc. So how to tell which is the ‘best’ – and, more important, which will be the last to fall?” Nando Times (Christian Science Monitor) 09/16/02

Sunday September 15

FIRING FALLOUT IN OZ: “Opera Australia’s decision not to renew artistic director Simone Young’s contract in 2003, announced three weeks after Young announced the 2003 season, has shocked the Australian arts scene,” but while many are decrying the sacking, few seem terribly surprised by it. Young was an aggressive director, undeniably raising the company’s artistic standards, but clashing with many powerful people along the way. Still, the musicians she led from the podium seem to be defending her for the most part, and some observers are left wondering how the Opera Australia executives can justify firing a woman who did exactly what she said she would do when they hired her. Andante 09/14/02

ENTER MAAZEL, CAUTIOUSLY: “Lorin Maazel gives his first concert as music director of the New York Philharmonic on Wednesday after a career that in retrospect looks restless, even rootless.” With openers like that, can there be any doubt that the New York media continue to be cool to the appointment of Maazel as the Phil’s new top man? But “speculation among New York critics that the Philharmonic musicians fell for Mr. Maazel because he let them skip a rehearsal misrepresents the seriousness of both conductor and orchestra.” Still, the question remains – will Maazel lead the Phil back to its former glory, or will the notoriously hard-to-please orchestra remain as it has been perceived for much of the last decade, as a collection of immensely talented people not quite living up to their potential? The New York Times 09/15/02

• AH, THAT FAMOUS NEW YORK APATHY: “Why should symphonic subscribers in Chicago or Cleveland be more loyal and proud than in New York? Is it because of New York itself — its size, its diversity, its seen-it-all, heard-it-all ‘sophistication’? …In fact, the Philharmonic’s audience problem is rooted in an institutional history so diffuse and haphazard that it’s no wonder the orchestra and the audience have never bonded. No other American orchestra of world stature must cope with so generic an identity.” The New York Times 09/15/02

THE UNUSUALLY IDLE RICH: This week, the musicians of the San Antonio Symphony agreed to a 20% pay cut for the upcoming season, which may have saved the organization from bankruptcy. But the larger issue remains unsolved: why has the city’s considerable class of wealthy residents and companies never stepped up to support San Antonio’s arts scene? “With a few exceptions, San Antonio’s large corporations make puny contributions to the symphony, and even punier contributions to the city’s other arts organizations. To judge from all the McMansions plopping down like cowpies north of town, it’s obvious that a lot of moneyed individuals aren’t pulling their weight, either.” San Antonio Express-News 09/15/02

THE LAST DIEHARDS? The BBC Proms is, unquestionably, the world’s most successful classical music festival, and the concerts attract dedicated fanatics of the type usually associated with the crowds gathered to see Manchester United or the Oakland Raiders. These are people who have not missed a Proms concert in decades, who line up eight hours in advance in order to secure ‘their’ spot inside. “Prommers guard both their territory and the purity of their musical experience. [One diehard] talks with horror of a recent concert at which the ice-cream seller came into the arena while the orchestra was still playing: she has yet to recover from this ‘dreadful’ experience.” The Guardian (UK) 09/13/02

OFF THE AIR IN CHICAGO: Less than a year after the Chicago Symphony Orchestra killed its long-running series of radio broadcasts for lack of sponsorship, the Chicago Lyric Opera is doing the same. The Lyric’s productions have been airing locally and nationwide since the mid-1970s, and in recent years have been funded in large part by donations from American and United Airlines. But the airline industry is in trouble, and last week, both carriers dropped their support for the series, leaving the Lyric holding a $400,000 tab it could not afford to pay. Chicago Tribune 09/13/02

HOPE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION? A recent study claimed that 65% of UK children could not name a single classical composer, and seem to be under the impression that Shakespeare wrote symphonies. The classical music world ought to be used to these surveys by now, but they never fail to produce the most remarkable panic among the type of arts folks who mistakenly believe that children of any era cared deeply about whether a particular musical passage was written by Beethoven or Offenbach. An informal survey of Londoners seems to confirm the study’s basic claim of musical ignorance, but Johnny Sharp points out that one of the beauties of classical music is that, like fine wine or great literature, it tends to be a pleasure that one discovers later in life. The Guardian (UK) 09/14/02

HITTIN’ ‘EM WHERE IT HURTS: The University of Southern California has come up with a tough new way to discourage its students from participating in illegal file-swapping of the type offered by Gnutella, Aimster, and the late Napster. Any USC student caught making peer-to-peer copies of copyrighted material (particularly MP3 files of songs or movies) will lose his/her campus computer access for a full year. The regulation is controversial, of course, and most universities continue to be unwilling to restrict what students may or may not do with their own computers, despite increasing pressure from the recording industry. Wired 09/13/02

THE NEXT TENOR GETS CANNED: “Tenor sensation Salvatore Licitra, who was touted as the heir to Luciano Pavarotti when he stepped in for Pavarotti at the Metropolitan Opera in May, may be emulating the legendary tenor’s talent for not showing up. Licitra has been replaced in the Vienna State Opera’s new production of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, because, according to a statement from the opera, he failed to ‘honor the contractual conditions agreed upon for rehearsal time.'” Andante 09/15/02

Friday September 13

GIVE PEACE A SONG: A group of musicians led by Dave Stewart, formerly of the Eurythmics, is trying to get radio stations around the world to play the song Peace One Day on Sept. 21, the United Nations-designated International Day of Peace. “The idea was to make a song that on Sept. 21 we’ll get as many stations around the world to play and DJs to talk about what it’s all about.” Nando Times (AP) 09/12/02

RECORDING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE RECORDING: Terry Teachout surveys the history of recorded music and come to a conclusion about the digital revolution – traditional recording companies are doomed. “In the not-so-long run, the introduction of online delivery systems and the spread of file-sharing will certainly undermine and very likely destroy the fundamental economic basis for the recording industry, at least as we know it today. And what will replace it? I, for one, think it highly likely that more and more artists will start to make their own recordings and market them directly to the public via the web. Undoubtedly, new managerial institutions will emerge to assist those artists who prefer not to engage in the time-consuming task of self-marketing, but these institutions will be true middlemen, purveyors of a service, as opposed to record labels, which use artists to serve their interests.” Commentary 09/02

OPERA AUSTRALIA NOT RENEWING A.D. CONTRACT: Opera Australia has announced it won’t be renewing the contract of artistic director Simone Young. Th company said in a statement that Young’s “visions for the artistic growth of the company are not sustainable by OA in its current financial position and we have reluctantly concluded that we have to seek another path.” Andante 09/13/02

STRENGTHENING THE BERLIN PHIL: What does Simon Rattle taking over directorship of the Berlin Philharmonic mean to the city? “The orchestra now has more influence and power than it ever had before. But we can no longer be just a concert- giving organization in a city like this. We have to be something a bit richer. The demographics of an orchestra can’t be changed overnight, but what you can do is touch more hearts in the city and realize that an orchestra is a resource that belongs to the whole city. That’s quite new in Germany.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09/13/02

Thursday September 12

SITUATION CRITICAL IN PITTSBURGH? The fiscal crisis at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra may be more dire than originally thought. The orchestra reported a $750,000 deficit for the 2001-02 season, and while that is not a high number in major orchestra circles, the PSO may not have the funds available to cover expenses this season. If that is, in fact, the case, the orchestra might file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to its managing director. However, it is worth noting that the PSO has a $93 million endowment, far higher than many other U.S. orchetsras, and that its contract with its musicians is due to expire at the end of this season, a condition which nearly always inspires orchestral managers to hyperbole. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/12/02

HOUSTON SYMPHONY CUTS: The Houston Symphony joins an increasingly lengthy list of American orchestras struggling with deficits. This week the Houston Symphony, staring at an expected $1.6 million deficit, “suspended three money-losing concert series, reduced its staff by 15 percent and instituted pay cuts for all administrative staff.” The orchestra’s musicians salaries were not cut. Houston Chronicle 09/11/02

SEEKING A WELL-ROUNDED NATION: The island nation of Singapore has been playing catch-up in crafting a national arts scene for the better part of a decade. Now, with a new $343 million performing arts center, the government is hoping to further develop an already flourishing market, bringing in such world-famous ensembles as the New York Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra to christen the concert hall. There have been concerns that the population of the island is not enough to justify the size of the center’s various halls, but the government swears it can fill the seats. Andante (UPI) 09/12/02

AND IT’S 1, 2, 3, WHAT ARE WE FIGHTIN’ FOR? “A lot has changed since last year, and as the country discusses going to war against Iraq, there has been almost no response from musicians, despite a tradition of political commentary and protest… But on Monday, one of the first major songs to directly address the nation’s stance toward Iraq was released. It is “The Bell,” by Stephan Smith, a folk singer whose songs echo Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie.” Smith doesn’t expect his song will be particularly popular with a nation still in the throes of nationalistic post-9/11 fervor, but then, popularity has never really been high on folk music’s list of priorities. The New York Times 09/12/02

THE GREAT DIGITAL DEBATE: It really comes down to this – most Americans grew up swapping LPs, making mix tapes, and sharing CDs with friends, so the computer generation feels they ought to be able to do the same. The recording industry points out that the computer generation can download a thousand MP3 song files in eight minutes without paying for any of them, which is not the same thing as making your girlfriend a mix tape. How to bridge this gap is the techno-challenge of the decade, and a new proposal has devised something called ‘squishy’ security in an effort to satisfy both sides. Naturally, both sides are skeptical. Wired 09/12/02

Wednesday September 11

HIP-HOPPING TO COMMERCIAL EXCESS…(ER, SUCCESS): “On any given week, Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks chart is filled with songs that serve as lyrical consumer reports for what are, or will be, the trendiest alcohol, automobile, and fashion brands. It’s an open secret in hip-hop that product placement comes in two distinct categories. There is genuine brand endorsement inspired by an affinity for a product. And then there’s name-dropping with the hopes that a marketing director will come bearing free goods—or a check.” Village Voice 09/10/02

SINGULAR FRUSTRATION: The executive producer of the UK’s most popular pop music TV show says the country’s singles charts are compromised by recording companies. “”The Top 40 chart is dysfunctional. The Official Top 40 doesn’t provide us with a list of the most popular songs in the country and that’s a problem. It’s controlled by record companies. Most of the Top 10 singles are new entries there because of clever marketing practices employed by record companies, not because they are popular.” The Independent (UK) 09/11/02

THE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION: How can you have a vital music culture when there aren’t interesting critics to write about it? A half-dozen prominent composers talk about the crisis in classical music criticism: “The music of living composers is not even despised because to be despised you have to exist. Cultured lay people may know about both Dante and Philip Roth, Michelangelo and Jackson Pollock. But if they know about Vivaldi they don’t know about his musical equivalent today. They only know about pop. Pop is the music of the world today, alas.” NewMusicBox 09/02

Tuesday September 10

SAN ANTONIO MUSICIANS TAKE CUT IN PAY: The San Antonio Symphony failed to balance its budget last season, and the orchestra’s ability to mount a season this year has been in doubt. But the orchestra’s musicians have voted to accept a 15 percent wage cut, by shortening the orchestra’s season. “The musicians will take a total economic hit of about $700,000 for the coming season. ‘It takes our base salary down to $28,000. That definitely takes us back to the mid-90s — 1995 or earlier’.” San Antonio Express-News 09/09/02

• Previously: TROUBLE IN SOUTH TEXAS: The San Antonio Symphony has never been a model of fiscal responsibility. Faced with years of high deficits and unbalanced budgets, the orchestra chose to liquidate its own endowment and rely on corporate and donor bailouts on a year-to-year basis rather than strive for meaningful change in its business plan. Now, the numbers crunch has reached crisis stage, and there is some doubt as to whether the SAS will even be able to have a 2002-03 season. San Antonio Express-News 08/27/02

EDMONTON CUTS SEASON: Unable to raise the money it needed, the Edmonton Opera has reduced its season from four operas to three – cutting a production of Turandot. “Corporate funding for the arts is extremely difficult to secure in Edmonton, and in Canada. The areas that are getting most attention from corporations these days are health and education.” Edmonton Journal 09/09/02

TUGBOAT SYMPHONY: Sound “curator” David Toop has organized a 15-minute piece for tugboats. “On September 15, as part of the Thames festival, up to a dozen of these water workhorses, dating from as far back as 1907, take centre stage in the Siren Space concert, which precedes the fireworks finale. Up to 100,000 people are expected to gather between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges.” The Guardian (UK) 09/10/02

SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL: German critics have raved about Simon Rattle’s debut as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. “A sense of intellect and soul – a sheer and devilish exactitude, and vehement gestures of guidance by Rattle – a miracle of transparency and ecstasy – All the best for the next 10 years!” The Guardian (UK) 09/10/02

Monday September 9

ARE CD’S TOO EXPENSIVE? Worried about slackening sales, some music labels are lowering prices on CDs to see if consumers will buy more. “Lower prices may at least stop the bleeding. But that’s tough for executives to admit. It calls into question their long-held belief that CDs are not only fairly priced, but a good value.” USA Today 09/09/02

HAMPTON’S LAST RIDE: Jazz great Lionel Hampton takes a last ride in New York as he gets a New Orleans-style funeral procession through Manhattan – led by Wynton Marsallis and an all star band of colleagues. “Not surprisingly, the spectacle of these splendidly attired musicians wailing their blues-tinged dirges while slowly marching in the middle of the street – oblivious to traffic lights and even to traffic – caused a stir. New Yorkers who had been watching from curbside fell in behind the band. Television crews and newspaper photographers, who had been tipped off that a New Orleans-style parade would unfold on this morning, meanwhile crowded in front of the parade and walked backward, so as to capture the action head-on.” Chicago Tribune 09/09/02

BEHIND THE CRITICAL CURVE: Is there a crisis in music criticism? Daniel Felsenfeld thinks so: “Twenty-five years or so ago, inaccessible was in vogue so critics responded in kind, all but begging for some tunes or nice chords. Now the opposite is true. Avant-garde is praised, the more difficult the better (Babbitt, Carter, Lachenmann, Boulez, Xenakis) while offerings by composers who either never left tonality, or approach it with fresh ears are given, for the most part, short shrift. An audience responding well to something automatically calls it into suspicion; appreciation is likely to elicit the ever-popular ‘You LIKED that?’ from the alleged musical literati.” NewMusicBox 09/02

SWITCHED-ON MOOG: Before the digital music revolution there was the Moog synthesizer, which for many people, was their first introduction to electronic music. Today digital rules, but musicians have rediscovered the old Moog – which produces an electronic sound that’s difficult to match. Now Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer has begun making the instrument again, and they’re selling as fast as he can make them. Boston Globe 09/09/02

Sunday September 8

SIMON’S BIG NIGHT: This weekend, all the hype which has swirled around Berlin for over a year comes to a head, as Sir Simon Rattle makes his debut as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. In the months since his appointment was announced, Rattle has promised to rid the ensemble of its “diva” image, and introduce a more contemporary repertoire to what is widely considered to be one of the world’s most staid and conservative orchestras. And while the Phil’s stoicism and the city’s economic uncertainty are sure to provide plenty of challenges, the Rattle Era is already being heralded as a new beginning for German music. Andante (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) 09/07/02

• OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT: With Berlin near financial collapse, the city’s unrivaled collection of cultural and musical institutions have been battling for their piece of the financial pie for the last few years, and it was on the fiscal stage that Simon Rattle scored his first victory with his new orchestra. With money tight, other conductors alternately threatened and cajoled the authorities, hoping their antics would spare them from the budget axe. “But Rattle had a trump card, which he was able to play endlessly. He simply refused to sign his contract, knowing that the city couldn’t countenance the humiliation of losing him to a rival orchestra in Boston or Philadelphia or – worst of all – Vienna.” The Telegraph (UK) 09/07/02
• PARTING SHOT: Sir Simon Rattle spent 18 years at the helm of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, guiding the group from a little-known regional ensemble to one of the U.K.’s premiere orchestras. Now, as he takes over in Berlin, Rattle is disenchanted with the British arts establishment, and has been making pointed comparisons between the British and German systems of arts funding. How long Rattle will be content with the money flow in cash-strapped Berlin remains to be seen, but his slings and arrows have stung the nation that gave him his start. The Guardian (UK) 09/07/02

WE’RE NUMBER ONE! OR TWO! WE THINK!: “Ranking orchestras by quality is hard — and subjective. Doesn’t every city think its orchestra is great? Orchestras wouldn’t have been formed without a strong element of civic pride. And yet orchestras are ranked all the time — by managers, by critics, by musicians, by conductors, by soloists… If there’s a vague consensus about what orchestras are on the list, what are the criteria? Recordings? Repertoire? Tours? Reviews? Budgets? Technical accomplishment? The glamour and talent of the music director? Orchestra managers and officials suggest that it’s a complicated question and that ranking basketball teams is much easier.” The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 09/08/02

MUSIC FOR AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY: With the first anniversary of 9/11 coming up on Wednesday, arts groups the world over are preparing to commemorate the attacks with concerts of all kinds. The “Rolling Requiem,” a worldwide performance of Mozart’s last work spanning 21 time zones and including 170 choirs, will run throughout the day. In Texas, the Houston Symphony will play a free concert celebrating American music. In Minneapolis, Renee Fleming will offer Strauss’s haunting Four Last Songs with the Minnesota Orchestra. And in New York, the Philharmonic will debut John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls, written for the occasion. And that’s only the beginning… Andante 09/08/02

A BUYER’S MARKET, IF YOU CAN FIND IT: Despite the troubles sweeping the recording industry, there are more recordings of great classical music available today than at any time in history. Still, where does the serious collector go to find that obscure recording or digital reissue? “The future, everyone says, lies on the Internet, but there are still a lot of problems there. One of the basic issues is the difficulty of building a database for classical music that is consistent enough for the search engines to deal with. (How do you spell ‘Petrouchka’?). And of course, the Internet is not the easiest place for you to find something you just have to have if you don’t already know that it exists. There isn’t a catalog that can keep up with what is theoretically or actually available. No publication like the Schwann Catalog of the LP era can claim to be ‘the collectors’ Bible’ anymore.” Boston Globe 09/08/02

ODE TO A DEAD CD PLAYER: “Musicians know the frustration of inwardly hearing a sound they cannot elicit from others or create themselves. Conductor Arturo Toscanini threw tantrums, once nearly putting out the eye of a violinist who did not realize the sound he wanted, and Wilhelm Furtwangler so regularly spat upon unresponsive players during rehearsals that some talked of getting umbrellas…” Such is the frustration of the audiophile, struggling desperately to recreate the glory of a live concert on a series of ever more complex machines. For most of us, a CD player is just a tool: to Alan Artner, it is a living, breathing thing, as irreplacable and mysterious as a human musician. Chicago Tribune 09/08/02

BIG IDEAS IN CLEVELAND: Franz Welser-Möst takes over as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra this month, and with that ensemble’s track record, you might think that the new man would be a bit intimidated. But Welser-Möst has some big plans for America’s most unlikely super-orchestra, and he isn’t worried in the least about the public reaction. “One of this orchestra’s many wonderful qualities is the humble attitude. I love that. When you come to conduct, it’s not like they know it all. It’s about the result, the product, not about the prestige… What’s so exciting in Cleveland is when you make programs, people will come. Some programs you couldn’t do in London. Maybe in Vienna. In Berlin, impossible.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 09/08/02

Friday September 6

VIOLINISTS TOLD TO SKIP ISRAEL? Did the Jerusalem branch of the British Council practice “cultural terror” by convincing prominent violinists Nigel Kennedy and Maxim Vengerov to cancel performances in Israel later this month? The two were told that “their lives would be endangered” if they attended such a “political” concert, which would “incur the wrath of millions of Muslims.” Andante (Jerusalem Post) 09/05/02

A LECTURE FOR CRITICS: Composer John Corigliano has a rigorous definition of job standards for music critics, and tells critic Justin Davidson so: “Am I saying that critics need to be trained musicians, thorough scholars, and snappy writers — all on a freelancer’s meager salary? Yes. ‘What professional standards should critics be held to?’ You need to be able to read like a conductor, research like an historian, judge like a parent and write like a playwright. ‘How should critics reconcile the demands of accuracy with the realities of the deadline and the music business?’ Take this question to your editors, Justin. Critics must improve the business of criticism: composers cannot. It’s tough out there, from what I hear. But it’s tough for composers, too. Sorry.” Andante 09/05/02

ANOTHER ORCHESTRA SEES RED: Add the Pittsburgh Symphony to the list of American orchestras posting deficits. The orchestra expects to open its new season with a $750,000 deficit from last season. With the softening stock market, the orchestra’s endowment slipped from $130 million to $100 million. “The orchestra, which reported a $200,000 deficit a year ago, also took a hard hit at the box office, finishing about $450,000 below projected ticket sales.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/06/02

LISTENING FOR MISTAKES: Programmers are converting raw computer code to music as a way of helping check the thousands of lines of code in programs. “Your ears are extremely good at picking up temporal patterns. Sometimes better than eyes. When different sections of code are put together, they should form a harmonious tune. But if a loop, for example, does not execute properly, the music would not ascend properly and the programmer should hear the error. Similarly, a duff statement would produce a different chord that would be immediately apparent.” New Scientist 09/05/02

PEACE THROUGH MUSIC? Conductor/pianist Daniel Barenboim is an internationalist through and through. “One of the few advantages that the 21st century has over the early 20th and 19th is, he believes, the pluralism of its societies. ‘Human beings have not only the possibility but almost the duty – yes, the duty! – to acquire multiple identities.’ He paddles his arms in a short, expressive backstroke. ‘That’s what globalisation means at its most positive. That you can feel French when you play Debussy, that you feel German when you play Wagner. You do not have to be one thing’.” The Guardian (UK) 09/06/02

VLADO PERLEMUTER, 98: The French pianist studied with Moszkowski and Cortot, gave his first piano recital in 1919 and studied Ravel with the composer himself. “His classes became legendary. His teaching embodied the great qualities of his own playing – an impassioned care for detail and also an architectural vision of each piece as a whole.” The Guardian (UK) 09/06/02

HEIFETZ’S FIDDLE PLAYS AGAIN: The San Francisco Symphony has a new member – Jascha Heifetz’s violin, the $6 million “David” Guarneri del Gesu. By arrangement with a local museum, the orchestra’s concertmaster will have the use of the instrument for the orchestra’s concerts. In the instrument’s debut in the role, “Davies was filled with the majestic sound of the ‘David’ – big, bold and full of all kinds of pungent and elusive colors, like the flavors in a complex sauce.” Unfortunately, writes Joshua Kosman, the orchestra’s opening concert of the season was uninspiring. San Francisco Chronicle 09/06/02

Thursday September 5

JANSONS TO AMSTERDAM? A Dutch newspaper is reporting that Pittsburgh Symphony music director Mariss Jansons is the musicians’ choice to be the next principal conductor of Amsterdam’s renowned Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Jansons, who has already announced his intention to leave the PSO when his contract expires, would likely jump at the opportunity – the Concertgebouw is considered to be among the top five orchestras in the world. A source in Pittsburgh believes that Jansons has already been offered the post. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/05/02

MORE INTRIGUE IN MONTREAL: Emile Subirana has had a very bad year. The head of the Quebec Musicians’ Guild has been accused of driving Charles Dutoit from the podium of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra when musicians asked him for help in dealing with their prickly leader, and, more recently, he has been charged with misusing union funds and overpaying himself for ‘consulting’ work. But yesterday, the guild’s union parent, the American Federation of Musicians, issued a 250-page report clearing him of all charges. It’s unlikely to assuage Subirana’s critics in Montreal, and further begs the question: who wants to get rid of the guild boss, and why? Montreal Gazette 09/04/02

CLASSIC FM BRANCHING OUT: While much of the classical music industry struggles, Britain’s ClassicFM is thriving, and expanding. The company operates an all-classical radio network with 6.7 million listeners per week, a magazine with strong circulation, and a successful record label. So what’s the next logical step? Television, of course. Classic FM says it will launch an over-the-air TV channel next year, and is confident that it can make money on the project. The Times (UK) 09/04/02

88 KEYS AND NOTHING TO SAY: Critic Martin Kettle is bored. “If there were a softer and gentler way of saying this, then I would say it. But in my view, modern concert pianists have become boring. Very few of them have anything very interesting to say, at least to me. To make such statements is to invite some heartfelt attacks. Some will say that it isn’t the pianists who are boring, but I who am bored with the piano. Perhaps that is the case. But then I only have to put on a CD by Schnabel to know that I’ll never be bored by him, at any rate.” The Guardian (UK) 09/05/02

THEY’RE SO MUCH BETTER ON THE WALL: A Stradivarius violin will be auctioned at Christie’s this week. This in itself is not terribly unusual – although there are only 500 or so Strads known to exist, they pop up at auction with some frequency – but this instrument is a perfect example not only of the absurdly high cost of the world’s top violins (it is expected to fetch $1.3 million,) but of the central conflict between collectors and performers. Incredibly, in 275 years, the fiddle has never been owned by a professional musician, and never been played in a concert. BBC 09/05/02

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: That CD you paid $18 for at a big national retailer cost the record company around thirty cents to produce, and these days, most consumers are aware of that, and are fairly unhappy about it. The industry has been accused for years of keeping CD prices artifically and indefensibly high, but now, the prices are coming down for the first time as individual labels try to dig out from under abysmal sales numbers and declining interest in their product. CDs by major artists are now selling like hotcakes at $11 to $13, and the industry may be on the verge of discovering a fascinating marketing concept called supply and demand. Chicago Tribune 09/05/02

SCORE ONE FOR THE HEAVYWEIGHTS: “A Chicago federal court judge granted the recording industry’s request for an injunction to shutter the file-trading network originally known as Aimster, almost certainly ending the company’s short life. The decision came down on the same day Napster quietly closed its doors for good, posting only a series of rotating animations on its website’s front door.” The battle over file-trading and music sharing has been raging for two years now, pitting consumers looking for free access to their favorite songs against a recording industry desperate to wring every penny they can out of the people who buy their recordings. Wired 09/04/02

Wednesday September 4

THE MUSIC EFFECT: “Science may not have yet figured out exactly how, or why, human beings respond to music. But research across many disciplines shows that music is a powerful stimulator, shaper and maybe even sharpener of memory.” Hartford Courant 09/04/02

STATISTICS, DAMN STATISTICS AND LIES: A new batch of polls and surveys arrives to depress the classical music faithful. Classical is a dying art, the evidence says. But is it really dying? There’s plenty of evidence to the contrary, and besides, don’t surveys prove the theories going into them? The Telegraph (UK) 09/04/02

SALZBURG SUCCESS: The Salzburg Festival ends its first season under new director Peter Ruzicka. “The season ended with a total of 21.75 million euros in ticket sales and a budget surplus of 1.6 million euros. The festival played to 93.5 percent capacity, attracting 212,000 visitors.” Andante 09/03/02

IT’S ALL ONE BIG POP: Nicholas Kenyon, director of the Proms, Britain’s biggest music series, says that lines between classical and pop music have broken down. “We have to recognise there is no longer a dividing line between the classical and pop worlds. They’re not in completely separate camps – there’s an overlap. We have to respond to what the audience listens to, and the audience’s tastes are wider and more volatile than ever. The audience is a voracious consumer of all sorts of cultural experience.” BBC 09/03/02

MUSICAL THEATRE AT THE ROYAL OPERA? London’s Royal Opera House might start offering musical theatre on its stage, alongside opera, says Anthony Pappano, the Royal’s new director. “I’m a big fan of musicals. I think it’s our job to expand the vistas of what is and is not musical theatre.” Pappano also said he would consider also using “enhanced sound” otherwise known as amplification. BBC 09/03/02

Tuesday September 3

I WANT TO HEAR LEONARDO’S NINTH: All ye who love music, read the following at your own peril… A UK magazine survey reports that “65% of children under 14 cannot name one classical composer. Only 14% of 600 children nationwide knew Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven wrote music.” Asked to name a composer, students answered variously with historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci and Shakespeare.” The Guardian (UK) 09/02/02

SOVIET TREASURE: For years the heart of the Soviet Ministry of Radio and Television archives – recordings of some of the USSR’s most important artists – have been stored away and inaccessible. “Now, after years of legal and technical wrangling, the performances recorded over nearly seven decades are being released. They number more than 400,000 – enough to fill 12,000 compact discs.” The Plain Dealer (AP) (Cleveland) 09/02/02

GREAT VIBES: “Lionel Hampton was a defining voice for a generation of musicians who understood that it was possible to entertain without sacrificing one’s quest for inventiveness. And he did so with consummate skill.” Los Angeles Times 09/02/02

Sunday September 1

DEAD MAN TELLS A TALE: When Gerald Segalman died, the elite, secretive world of violin dealers was salivating even before the casket was in the ground. Segalman was known to be one of the world’s foremost collectors of priceless instruments, and his estate promised to make millionaires of the dealer who managed to oversee the sale of the valuable fiddles. What none of the dealers foresaw was that Segalman’s legacy would blow the lid off their deceptive, underhanded fraternity, which for years has been over- and under-valuing instruments based on their own desires, and gouging the musicians who actually need them. The Guardian (UK) 08/31/02

WHO FORGOT TO STROKE THE MONEY GUY? Opera patron Alberto Vilar, whose fiscal generosity may be exceeded only by his considerable ego, is pitching a rather public fit at the British government, which he accuses of ignoring him and forgetting “to say the two most important words – thank you.” Vilar says his support of London’s Covent Garden will continue, but also promised that the UK would “regret” its treatment of him. BBC 09/01/02

AND IN THIS CORNER… For a critic, reviewing a work of new music presents unique challenges, not the least of which is that the composer is still around to shoot back if s/he doesn’t like what’s written. Two Pulitzer Prize-winners – one a composer, one a critic – see the conflict from decidedly different angles, and the debate ranges from whether critics are capable of recognizing a bad performance of a good piece to whether composers drastically overstate the impact of critical assessment. Andante 09/01/02

DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL, JUST PLAY: Race is such an important component of the history of jazz that no one would think of ignoring it. As a result, the musicians who make up the jazz world have tended to be out front of the rest of the country on a wide range of social issues over the years. Yet the jazz world has maintained a macho, testosterone-driven style which has made it nearly impossible for gay musicians to be open about their sexuality. Jazz has maintained a staunchly conservative attitude towards gays, and the jazz world went into an uproar in 1996 when a biography revealed that the famed composer Billy Strayhorn had been gay. Why isn’t this situation getting any better with the passage of time? The New York Times 09/01/02

CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE, RIGHT? Even as death knells, critical blasts, and doomsaying analyses continue to pour in from the press, the world of classical music appears to be building a power generation of young musicians. Youth orchestras, which, arguably, play at a higher level today than at any point in the past, are overflowing with talent, and the toughest college in the nation to get into is still Juilliard. The young people participating in the training are wildly passionate about the music they play, and many in the industry say that such devotion will assure that classical music will continue to be a viable enterprise for decades to come. The Christian Science Monitor 08/30/02

THE LITTLE LABEL THAT COULD: “This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of Naxos, the once dowdy little budget record company that is now the biggest independent classical label in the world. Back in 1987, Naxos’s founder and CEO Klaus Heymann decided to record 100 popular classical music titles as a sideline to his main business of distributing sound systems in Asia. From that humble beginning Naxos grew into an international conglomerate with 250 employees and a catalogue of over 2400 CDs… Today Naxos dominates classical music sales in the UK, Germany, and Scandinavia with 30%-80% of the per unit classical market.” La Scena Musicale 09/01/02

TROUBLE IN TEXAS: For some orchestras, it just seems as if nothing they do is ever enough. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has risen to national prominence in the last decade under the baton of a popular young conductor; it has increased ticket sales; and in a year when many orchestras lost tens of millions of dollars from their endowments, the DSO actually increased its stockpile of money by $4.3 million. And yet, as their new season opens, the orchestra is staring down a massive deficit, and wondering what it will take to sustain its recent success. Dallas Morning News 09/01/02

TANGLEWOOD TUSSLE: The musicians of the Boston Symphony Orchestra take their role as instructors at the Tanglewood Music Center very seriously, as do the TMC’s students, who represent some of the most promising young players in the U.S. So when the BSO musicians complain that the Center is not providing enough performing opportunities for its students, it’s something of a major controversy. Of particular concern was the small number of large-scale works programmed at TMC this summer, which meant a lot of sitting around for the brass. Boston Globe 08/30/02 (first item)

LIONEL HAMPTON, 94: It’s a good bet that, absent Lionel Hampton, the world would never have come to think of vibraphone as a great jazz instrument. But Hampton, who “until recently continued to tour the world with his own immensely popular big band, was an extremely important figure in American music, not only as an entertainer and an improvising musician in jazz, but also because his band helped usher in rock ‘n’ roll.” Hampton died in a New York hospital this weekend. The New York Times 09/01/02

Friday August 30

KIDS’ PLAY: “For the past seven years, pop has ruled the singles chart so convincingly that record companies appear to have abandoned trying to sell singles to adults altogether.” The sweet spot in the market is the tweenies – pre-teens who are changing the way music is sold. “They prefer singles to albums partly because of limited funds, partly because even they can tell most albums by pop artists simply aren’t very good: they’re packed with filler tracks that lack the direct appeal of their singles. The result is a schism in the charts. In 2001, the year’s best-selling singles were recorded by very different artists from those who made the year’s best-selling albums.” The Guardian (UK) 08/30/02

MUSICAL CHAIRS: How do you fit subscribers from a hall that seats 3100 into one that seats 2,300? If you’re the Los Angeles Philharmonic, allocating seats in its new $274 million Disney Hall will be determined by “seniority, money and volunteer work. The task of appeasing 27,000 priority-seeking subscription-holders in clout-conscious Los Angeles stands as a challenge in human engineering to rival the mathematics behind architect Frank Gehry’s tilting, soaring wall panels.” Los Angeles Times 08/30/02

THE NEW BERLIN: Conductor Simon Rattle takes over direction of the Berlin Philharmonic next week. And already he’s sending strong signals that he plans to shake things up and revitalize a decidedly traditional institution. “A lot of our work is as much urban regeneration as anything else. If you believe that in any sense music is a moral force then part of our job is to help to deal with the state of the city. This is, after all, the most famous divided city in the world apart from Jerusalem.” The Guardian (UK) 08/30/02

• STAR AWAY FROM HOME: Rattle is an unprepossessing star with few star trappings. Despite his harsh words last week about culture in Britain he says “I am English to the soles of my feet, but I accept that, for the foreseeable future, most of my musical life will be in Central Europe.” London Evening Standard 08/29/02
• Previously: RATTLE SOUNDS OFF: Conductor Simon Rattle has sounded off about British culture in an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit. “About to take up his post as director of the Berlin Philharmonic, [Rattle] has had it with the caterwauling crudities and street-trash vulgarities of British culture. He much prefers the high cultural seriousness of Germany with its great, well-funded orchestras and modernist-minded public. Finally he will be free of those Hogarthian urchins and sluts he singles out as the image of all that is philistine and glib in the arts in Britain – the Britart generation, “artists such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the others. I believe that much of this English, very biographically oriented art is bullshit.” The Guardian (UK) 08/26/02

BETTER – BUT AT WHAT COST? What’s that? A new music format? So good it’ll revolutionize the way you listen? “To many people, word that the music industry is launching a newer, shinier music disc when they have only just mastered opening a double-CD jewel case without the contents braining the cat, is not a cause of unalloyed joy. The sound is 3D, thrilling and — of course — thoroughly depressing.” The Times (UK) 08/30/02

Thursday August 29

THE UNMAKING OF EMI: Poor CD sales and probable liability in a lawsuit caused shares of recording giant EMI to plunge this week. The company’s stock price has fallen so low it’s about to get knock off an important stock index. “Analysts reckon EMI needs to increase its share of the global music market by at least 14% to avoid missing its target. Given that its slice of the US music market is falling, that looks a tall order.” The Guardian (U&K) 08/29/02

CHARISMA FAILURE: It seems almost inexplicable that the human race, with its ravenous appetite for entertainment, should have failed over quarter of a century to produce another Callas and Elvis. Neither Pavarotti nor Madonna come close, nor ever will. The desperate efforts of a universal music industry have yielded nothing more enduring than Cecilia Bartoli, the mini-voiced mezzo who tops the opera charts, and the high-kicking, faintly archaic Kylie Minogue, who belongs more to the smiley era of the Andrews Sisters than to the grim virtual reality of Bill Gates.” London Evening Standard 08/28/02

TONE DEAF REMEMBRANCE: Songwriters so far haven’t been very eloquent around the subject of 9/11. Many have tried, and “it’s understandable that successful songwriters (as well as scores of aspiring ones) feel compelled to express themselves in a time of trauma. They have been blessed with the ability to communicate and feel it is their duty to make music, the same way a firefighter feels it’s his or her duty to go into a burning building. In the process, it is easy to lose artistic discipline and judgment. The biggest mistake is trying to write an anthem that addresses the topic head-on rather than with a poetic distance.” Los Angeles Times 08/28/02

A NEW MUSIC FORMAT: The recording industry has a new digital format for you to buy. “Unlike a CD, the format will greatly restrict your ability to make digital copies. It will cost more than a prerecorded CD. And it will require you to invest a few hundred dollars in a new player.” Think it’ll take off? The New York Times 08/29/02

Wednesday August 28

BAD NEWS FOR CLASSICAL MUSIC: A new study of UK and US music habits “found that concert attendances by British people under 47 had plummeted since 1990. Young audiences ‘distrusted’ cultural institutions, including orchestras, which they perceive as ‘authoritarian’. The report found that over one third of British people had attended a classical concert, and only 12% did so in the past year. This was a sharper fall-off rate than theatre, visual arts or festivals, suggesting people who went into a concert hall did not like what they found and did not go back.” The Guardian (UK) 08/28/02

NO-SHOWS IN ISRAEL BECOMING EPIDEMIC: With the violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories continuing to escalate, more and more performers are cancelling planned appearances in the country. In particular, Israeli orchestras are bracing for a slew of cancellations this fall from major international soloists, and hoping that their organizations can survive the financial hit such no-shows will induce. Ha’aretz (Tel Aviv) 08/27/02

TROUBLE IN SOUTH TEXAS: The San Antonio Symphony has never been a model of fiscal responsibility. Faced with years of high deficits and unbalanced budgets, the orchestra chose to liquidate its own endowment and rely on corporate and donor bailouts on a year-to-year basis rather than strive for meaningful change in its business plan. Now, the numbers crunch has reached crisis stage, and there is some doubt as to whether the SAS will even be able to have a 2002-03 season. San Antonio Express-News 08/27/02

THERE HAVE BEEN STRANGER LIBRETTOS: The sudden death of Princess Diana may not seem like the perfect subject for a fully staged opera, but that’s exactly what composer Johnathan Dove has made of it. Even more surprisingly, the made-for-TV opera, which premieres this weekend on a cable network, is pretty good stuff, according to Olin Chism. “Mr. Dove’s music is tonal and unusually attractive without being simplistic. His use of the orchestra is highly effective, giving added point to many dramatic scenes. A solid group of performers enhances the whole.” Dallas Morning News 08/28/02

Tuesday August 27

I HEAR GHOSTS: TV show deadlines are so hectic, more and more composers are delegating work to ghostwriters. “It’s definitely one of the dirty little secrets of the film and television music industry.” But what happens when royalties are paid out? The composer listed on the credits gets paid, but not the ghostwriter, who often doesn’t have a contract. Now a prolific ghost is suing, and the system of paying for TV music is under attack. Detroit Free Press 08/27/02

TROMBONE IN TROUBLE: So few students are taking up study of the trombone (and a few other unpopular instruments) that some experts say there will be a shortage of players in years to come. The British “government’s youth music advisers are so concerned that they are preparing a national campaign to rescue the trombone and other ‘endangered’ instruments such as the bassoon and double bass, warning that British orchestras might soon have to look abroad for players.” The Guardian (UK) 08/26/02

MUSIC SALES DOWN: Sales of CDs are down 7 percent in the first half of this year compared to last year says the Recording Industry Association of America. That, says the RIAA is evidence that internet filetrading is impacting music sales. “I would not argue that downloading and copying are the only factors at work. But we have clear evidence that downloading and copying do not have a favorable effect on record sales.” Wired 08/26/02

• PROPPING UP THE SKY: Recording companies have been whining for decades that each new technology that comes along will put them out of business. “Then they go about finding numbers to back up the claim. But the industry weathered similar downturns when the disco era came to an end – portable music devices like the Sony Walkman were introduced, and video arcades were competing for teenagers’ limited cash reserves.” Wired 08/27/02

WILLIAM WARFIELD, 82: Bass-baritone William Warfield, best known for his stirring performances of Porgy in Porgy and Bess, has died in Chicago, after complications due to a broken neck suffered last month. He was 82. The New York Times 08/27/02

MUSIC OF THE COSMOS: “For nearly four decades, University of Iowa astrophysicist Donald Gurnett has analyzed and interpreted the solar system’s chirps, whistles and grunts, all captured during dozens of unmanned space flights by sophisticated radio receivers he invented in the early 1960s.” Now composer Terry Riley has taken the recordings and incorporated them into his music. San Jose Mercury-News 08/27/02

Monday August 26

TOO MUCH MUSIC: This year some 7,000 commercial recordings will be released in the US. That’s more than 140 new CDs a week. “Add thousands of albums released through independent labels, thousands from do-it-yourself acts, thousands of back catalogue re-issues and thousands more singles, EPs and mini-albums and it’s evident we have entered the era of musical overload.” How could anyone make sense of it all. How to find what’s good out of this slush pile? Sydney Morning Herald 08/26/02

MAYBE FILE-TRADING MATTERS? Researcher Stan Liebowitz reported earlier this year that MP3 file downloading didn’t seem to be making an impact on CD sales. Now he’s not so sure. “,It is certainly not conclusive, by any means, that there’s real damage going on from MP3s. It could be that we’re having a bit of doldrums in terms of taste; it could be that we’re all using CDs now and nothing else so since they’re a little more durable than other formats that could be part of it. But it is at least beginning to look like there is damage being caused. But remember, the original story was that there’s so much MP3 downloading going on so we should see a really big impact fairly easy. And now we’re seeing a medium impact, which still could be explained by other things – but we can’t discount the MP3 possibility.” Salon 08/23/02

• Previously: THE DOWNLOAD EFFECT? A prominent economics professor studying the effect of music downloading wonders why there isn’t more of an impact on CD sales. Sure, sales were down a bit last year, and it could be explained by the recession. Estimates of downloads are five times greater than CD sales. Yet CD sales are only down 5 percent. Perhaps digital trading isn’t hurting legit sales? Salon 06/13/02

CITY OPERA TO WTC SITE? New York City Opera, thwarted in its wish to have a new home of its own at Lincoln Center, is seriously considering a move to a site close to where the World Trade Center once stood. “The project, still in the early stages of formation, envisions City Opera as the anchor tenant of a cultural complex that would include other arts groups. In one configuration, the center would provide a 2,200-seat opera house and a 900-seat dance space. The project has attracted interest from the Joyce Theater, the Chelsea-based home of contemporary dance.” The New York Times 08/24/02

CLEVELAND DEFICIT: The Cleveland Orchestra reports a $1.3 million deficit – its first in more than ten years. “The orchestra blames the shortfall primarily on declines in the stock market and sagging contributions from corporations. To prevent further erosion, the association is reducing expenses and delaying some programs, though largely without touching the orchestra’s core activities.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 08/24/02

RATTLE SOUNDS OFF: Conductor Simon Rattle has sounded off about British culture in an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit. “About to take up his post as director of the Berlin Philharmonic, [Rattle] has had it with the caterwauling crudities and street-trash vulgarities of British culture. He much prefers the high cultural seriousness of Germany with its great, well-funded orchestras and modernist-minded public. Finally he will be free of those Hogarthian urchins and sluts he singles out as the image of all that is philistine and glib in the arts in Britain – the Britart generation, “artists such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the others. I believe that much of this English, very biographically oriented art is bullshit.” The Guardian (UK) 08/26/02

Sunday August 25

RECIPE FOR REFORM: How does classical music – with its formal dress, gilded halls and stiff traditions, appeal to a less-formal world? “Of course, all the fine arts are elitist, if by that term we mean intellectual, complex, sophisticated. Although the fine arts can also be engrossing, visceral and deeply entertaining, you have to bring your brain to classical music, a requisite that makes it suspicious to some. America has always had an annoying strain of anti-intellectualism. When the perception of elitism keeps people away from high culture, it’s a serious problem.” Classical music has been experimenting – and needs to experiment more – with ways to draw listeners in. The New York Times 08/25/02

THE SMART SIDE OF CANCELING: Los Angeles Opera’s cancellation of a Kirov production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace for lack of money could be a sign of the company’s inner turmoil. But perhaps not. “As I wrote at the end of last season, L.A. Opera has a reputation for chaos, and the upside of that may be an ability to think on its feet and turn on a dime. L.A. Opera’s decision to import Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk from the Kirov in place of War and Peace is brilliant.” Los Angeles Times 08/24/02

• Previously: L.A. OPERA CANCELS VILAR-BACKED PRODUCTION: The Los Angeles Opera has canceled an ambitious $3 million production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace after the cost of presenting the Kirov Opera production rose by $600,000 more than expected. Patron Alberto Vilar had pledged $1 million for the production, but when the company asked him to kick in the extra money and move up the payment on his $1 million gift, he declined. So the production was canceled and replaced by Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Los Angeles Times 08/23/02

TOO MUCH PERCUSSION: Composer Ned Rorem has always been an outspoken contrarian. As he turns 80, none of that public persona has changed. “The quality of his recent output suggests that these pieces are likely to be those for which he’s most remembered. Yet Rorem wonders if it matters: ‘I feel we’ve got about 10 more years and the whole world will blow up,’ he said one recent afternoon, sitting in a park here. ‘Or at best, we’ll end up loving each other in the most mediocre way, and the music you and I like will be in the remote past’.” Philadelphia Inquirer 08/25/02

Friday August 23

L.A. OPERA CANCELS VILAR-BACKED PRODUCTION: The Los Angeles Opera has canceled an ambitious $3 million production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace after the cost of presenting the Kirov Opera production rose by $600,000 more than expected. Patron Alberto Vilar had pledged $1 million for the production, but when the company asked him to kick in the extra money and move up the payment on his $1 million gift, he declined. So the production was canceled and replaced by Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Los Angeles Times 08/23/02

SOMEONE LIKE PUTIN: A song about Russian President Vladimir Putin is getting massive airplay in Moscow. But the band that recorded it doesn’t seem to exist, and there’s no recording of the song for sale in stores. Someone Like Putin, by a band called Singing Together, “features a female lead singer complaining that her adolescent boyfriend fights and drinks. So she leaves him and looks for someone else: someone like Putin. A search of Moscow’s record shops, markets and kiosks failed to turn up CDs or cassettes of the song. There have been no videos, concerts, or articles in the music press about the band.” Ottawa Citizen 08/23/02

ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA TO REMAIN FULL TIME: Opera lovers have been angry about rumours that the English National Opera company was “considering plans to shut down for 16 months, make many of its staff redundant and use its Coliseum theatre in Covent Garden, central London only part-time.” But this week the companies directors declared they’re committed to keeping the ENO fulltime.” BBC 08/23/02

FLOOD REFUNDS: “Dresden’s flooded Semper opera house is refunding 150,000 tickets because its new season has been delayed by repairs.” The historic building was one of many damaged in the floods of the past week. BBC 08/23/02

MUSICAL TRIBUTE FOR 9/11: NBC will televise an official musical commemoration of 9/11 from the Kennedy Center. “The network, which is airing the special commemoration, said that Placido Domingo, Aretha Franklin, Renee Fleming, Alan Jackson, Enrique Iglesias, Al Green, Gloria Estefan and Josh Groban have been signed for the event. The National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin, will also participate, and more performers are expected to be added to the lineup.” Washington Post 08/22/02

COVENT GARDEN’S NEW MAN: Forty-two-year-old Anthony Pappano debuts as director of London’s Royal Opera on Sept. 6. On first encounter, writes Hugh Canning, his “frankness and honesty were certainly a breath of fresh air for journalists used to stonewalling and party lines from previous Royal Opera supremos. (Haitink rarely said anything at press conferences, but looked almost permanently glum, to the point that such encounters with the newshounds either took place in his absence or were dropped altogether in favor of a general press release in his later years at Covent Garden).” Andante 08/22/02

Thursday August 22

RECORDING COMPANIES ON THE ATTACK: Major recording companies ask a US federal court to force ISP Verizon to turn over information about one of the company’s customers. The recording industry believes the customer is trading copyrighted music files. So far, Verizon refuses to turn over the information. “Verizon finds itself on a slippery slope. ISPs promise users to protect their identities, but entertainment companies are increasingly putting pressure on Congress and the Justice Department to crack down on people illegally sharing songs and movies.” Wired 08/21/02

• COUNTERFEIT CD BUST:Philippine police seize counterfeit CDs worth $20 million. “The US has put pressure on countries like the Philippines to crack down on gangs running pirate operations, saying more investment and technology would be attracted if they did. Fake music CDs sell on the streets of Manila for between $0.40 (25p) and $1.20 (80p) each.” BBC 08/21/02

NEWTON VS. THE BEASTIE BOYS: Flutist James Newton found out the Beastie Boys had used a 6-second sample of his playing on a recording without paying him – or even letting him know. He sued and lost – the law says only that the composer and the original record label must give their permission for a sample, not the performer. “Composers are nervously keeping an eye on the case, wondering what kind of precedent it will set if the ruling is upheld.” Washington Post 08/22/02

VOLUME MISCOUNT: Are today’s orchestras too loud? “Orchestras have become much, much louder since the 18th century. And the process has gathered pace dramatically since the Second World War. We have reached the point where brass instruments exceed permitted industrial noise levels. Orchestral players are advised, or instructed, to wear earplugs, and with good reason. Musicians are being deafened by music. It is an absurd situation.” London Evening Standard 08/21/02

PROJECTION OPERA: La Scala has decided to project highlights of its productions on a giant screen on the piazza outside the La Scala Opera House while the company is performing in a temporary home. The plans to screen the performances come after retailers around the opera house said they were losing money now that tourists and opera fans have followed the company to its new home while the La Scala building is been renovated. “Officials decided that viewers probably wouldn’t want to stand outside to see the lengthy operas from beginning to end.” NJ Online (AP) 08/22/02

MUCH ABOUT MARLBORO: The Marlboro Music Festival is more about rehearsing than performing. Performing is a by-product of the summer. “Where else could a string quartet prepare a work for six weeks – and only then decide whether it’s good enough to put in front of an audience?” This is a place where distinguished musicians and promising newcomers mix and match. Marlboro must do something right – “Yo-Yo Ma said Marlboro is where he decided to become a musician.” Alumni include some of the world’s most distinguished musicians. Philadelphia Inquirer 08/22/02

Wednesday August 21

DON’T BLAME THE CUSTOMER: Recording companies are blaming file trading for a downturn in CD sales. “Yet there are many other causes, including the fact that the big five are all units of troubled multinationals—AOL Time Warner, Vivendi Universal, BMG, EMI, and Sony—that are focused on short-term gain and have no particular interest in the music biz. There’s also been a recession, of course, and resistance to CD prices that have grown much faster than the inflation rate. Perhaps the most important factor, however, is the major labels’ very success in dominating the market, which has squelched musical innovation.” Slate 08/21/02

• KILLING THE MESSENGER (ISP)? Major recording companies are trying to fight a file-trading internet site based in China that allows visitors to download thousands of music tracks. They can’t identify the owner of the site, so they’re trying to stop American internet service providers from allowing their users to access the site. The Guardian (UK) 08/20/02

ENTERTAININGLY OUTRAGEOUS: One of the hottest shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival is Jerry Springer: The Opera. Critics love it, and crowds line up each night to buy tickets. The show “features a chorus line of dancing Ku Klux Klansmen and an all-singing cast of adulterous spouses, strippers, crack addicts and transsexuals. ‘You think it’s going to be some sort of knockabout burlesque, but it starts to affect you emotionally’.” Nando Times (AP) 08/20/02

CLONE ME AN OPERA: San Francisco Opera has a plan to encourage non-traditional storylines as subjects for opera. One “recently commissioned one-act opera follows the exploits of a scientist who clones herself three times and also genetically engineers a human to incorporate the best genes from every animal on Earth.” Wired 08/20/02

MELBOURNE’S OPERA BLUES: Opera in Melbourne has sunk to a sorry state. “The past six years have seen the state opera company sink in a financial quagmire, and the new Opera Australia focus its performance schedule on Sydney, denying Melbourne the international superstars it brings to the Opera House stage.” Going a traditional route doesn’t seem viable – so maybe a fresh vision is needed for Melbourne opera. The Age (Melbourne) 08/21/02

Tuesday August 20

STILL DON’T TRUST THE SUITS: The story of the band Wilco and how its new recording was rejected by record label execs for “commercial” reasons then picked up by another label, has been portrayed as an example of evil corporatization. Actually it’s not, but it is an example of what’s wrong with the recording business today. Slate 08/19/02

AUSSIE DOLLAR ACTS: Expensive international big-name music acts are canceling out of dates in Australia because of the weak Australian dollar. But that’s opened up opportunities for mid-level Aussie bands, who are filling the gaps. Sydney Morning Herald 08/20/02

INFLICTING MUSIC: Cambridge scientists drugged mice in an experiment – injecting half with salt, the other half with methamphetamine, then blasted loud music at them to gauge their reaction. “The music was either from dance act The Prodigy or Bach’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, both of which have a similar tempo. Animals injected with salt fell asleep with the music. But the sound dramatically affected the drugged mice, causing them to suffer more speed-induced brain damage than normal. They appeared to ‘jiggle backwards and forwards’ as the music pounded in their ears.” The researchers have been reprimanded for cruelty to animals. Sydney Morning Herald 08/20/02

Monday August 19

CAPTURED BY THE MUSIC: Background music is everywhere. But who picks it? And why? “What started out as a simple idea — spend a day actually listening to the music that plays in shops, restaurants and bars — has plunged me into a strange and complex netherworld of secretly encoded CDs, shadowy music programmers, involuntary behavioural modification and ruthless record company promotion. In addition, the unceasing soundtrack of light, R&B-influenced pop and mild-mannered rock is sending me slightly barmy.” The Age (Melbourne) 08/18/02

MUSIC LABELS ON THE ATTACK: Major recording companies have escalated their war against music file traders. A group of major record labels have sued internet service providers to block access to a website they claim allows people to copy music. It demanded that internet providers including AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Sprint and WorldCom block access to Listen4ever.com.” BBC 08/18/02

MORE SHOWBIZ THAN MUSIC: Music critic John von Rhein despairs of some of the lapses in musical taste he has heard recently. “This nation really does appear to be suffering from a musical illiteracy greater than at any time in the three decades I have been attending concerts. That illiteracy can be observed on both sides of the stage and flourishes most insidiously in the citadels of managerial power. The classical music business, faced with a famously shrinking and aging public as well as a diminished pool of bankable superstars, has been slowly turning serious music into just another branch of show biz.” Chicago Tribune 08/18/02

COLOR BIND: The reasons why there are so few African-American musicians in symphony orchestras are complicated. “Many African-American musicians vehemently defend blind auditions, arguing that selection for orchestra positions should always be based on musical merit rather than skin color. But the pool of African-American musicians auditioning for orchestra jobs is small, smaller than it should be, according to some classical music insiders. Is it a matter of fewer talented players or the fact that talented players don’t feel welcome in American orchestras?” Chicago Sun-Times 08/1/02

MISSING YOU ALREADY: When Disney Hall opens next year in Los Angeles and the LA Philharmonic moves out, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, orchestra’s current home will lose hundreds of concert bookings. To stay solvent, the hall is having to become a presenter of performances rather than a building caretaker. It’s not such an easy challenge. Los Angeles Times 08/18/02

OPERA COMPANIES MERGE: Since the mid-90s The Triangle area of North Carolina has had dueling opera companies. But the Opera Company of North Carolina and Triangle Opera have struggled to win the divided affections of their fans. Now the companies have finally agreed to a merger. Raleigh News & Observer 08/18/02

Sunday August 18

POWER PLAYS: The backstage power struggles at Bayreuth have been every bit as operatic as the drama onstage, as various members of the Wagner family grappled for control. But “more than half a century after the reopening of denazified Bayreuth, the noise – and significance – of the internecine Wagner family rows is at last beginning to fade. It is high time that the festival was now judged for what it is, rather than what it was or what it might have been. In particular, this applies to the role of the festival director Wolfgang Wagner. Admittedly this is not easy.” The Guardian (UK) 08/17/02

FINDING A HALL MARK: Back in the 1980s, the building of Roy Thomson Hall for the Toronto Symphony was seen as the city’s bid to join the big leagues of concert life. It didn’t turn out that way, and after decades of complaining about acoustics, the hall has been redesigned. But the decision to pointedly exclude original architect Arthur Erickson from the redesign has been controversial. And suspense about how the sound will turn out is high. Globe Mail (Canada) 08/17/02

Friday August 16

DI-AS-OPERA: The story of Princess Di certainly has the drama of an opera. But will it work as one? TV viewers will soon find out. “I suppose this Diana piece is a kind of community opera manque. It was the response of people who turned out in Kensington Gardens which really intrigued me, its mythical possibilities. That’s what I wanted to express. I realised I could write a huge lament for them to sing, and that appealed. I’ve always had an interest in finding the operatic in everyday occurrences. Life is operatic. Not that the death of Diana was in any sense ordinary, of course.” London Evening Standard 08/15/02

STYLE BREAK: Orchestra musicians have dressed the way they do for centuries. But some European orchestras are wondering about making a change. “Many orchestras are concerned that tails are dated and may put off new audiences; meanwhile, some are concerned that change could alienate the longtime audiences who are accustomed to the tails-for-men-and-long-black-for-women look.” Andante 08/16/02

PIPE DREAMS: The organ for Los Angeles’ new cathedral took five years to build and cost $2 million. “You buy an organ at great risk. It’s too early to tell the final result, but the imagination and skill that have gone into it have been the highest caliber. This instrument really does become a new interpretation of what the ideal organ can be.” Los Angeles Times 08/16/02

Thursday August 15

CLASSIC SUCCESS STORY: In America, classical music radio stations may be a losing proposition. But in Britain, 10-year-old Classic FM is “the biggest radio success story of the decade, and their unashamedly populist approach has seen audiences soar to 6.8 million – a 360,000 increase on last year. Audiences now outstrip Radio 1, Kiss and Virgin, and with a revenue increase of 23 per cent, they are celebrating their anniversary with a clutch of new signings.” The Scotsman 08/14/02

GETTIN’ REAL WITH THE ROUGH STUFF: “In both rock and country, the axiom (right or wrong) has been that the rough stuff is the source of innovation: Rawness is truth, violence is strength, stripped-down is honest. When things get too squishy, the most demanding part of the audience starts to squirm and, as legend has it, the young punks and outlaws provide a reality check. That same set of reflexive values has been superimposed on hip-hop in the past 20 years: ‘Keeping it real’ means keeping it on ‘street’ level, and the streets, don’t you know, are mean and murderous.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/15/02

TEACHING YOUR OWN: Irish composer Mícheál O Súilleabháin argues that supporting local cultural traditions over global blandness pays big dividends. “I say that out of my own experience in Irish educational circles over the past 25 years, when we’ve seen that the integration of traditional music within school curricula, and particularly within higher education, has had a significant knock-on effect in terms of rebalancing cultural forces in Ireland.” The Scotsman 08/14/02

TOO MANY OTHER THINGS… A survey of music consumers suggests that downloading music is not to blame for a recent downturn in music sales. “Increased competition for consumer entertainment dollars – from video games, cable television and home theatres – was more responsible for the slump.” Sydney Morning Herald (AFP) 08/15/02

ALBERTO IN LOVE: Alberto Vilar has given $250 million to the arts, and his passion for opera projects is high. But after a difficult surgery and a new fiancee, “he looks on the arts now with a warier eye and to his own happiness as a higher priority.” Will marriage slow down his gifts to favored music projects? London Evening Standard 08/14/02

Wednesday August 14

THE OPERATIC MAGGIE: The new opera about Princess Di just doesn’t work. But then, few operas on contemporary themes are successful. Rupert Christiansen has an idea though: “My advice to any composer who wants to tackle a subject with “contemporary relevance” would be to think big and Verdian (Rigoletto, Don Carlos). [John Adams’] Nixon in China works because the characters and situation were already larger than life, and it never tries to be ordinarily real. I have a specific suggestion to offer. A composer with Donizetti’s dash and vigour should tackle my idea for a grand opera based on the fall of Margaret Thatcher.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/14/02

WRESTLING FOR THE SOUL OF ENGLISH OPERA: Nicholas Payne’s ousting from the directorship of the English National Opera puts into question the future of the company’s adventurousness. But more than that, Payne’s ouster was a boardroom putsch engineered by the company’s chairman, who has more than a few ideas of his own about the artistic future. But will ENO become just a pale carbon copy of Britain’s other opera companies? The Spectator 08/10/02

VIDEO GAMES – THAT’S WHERE THE MONEY IS: “For years, record companies considered licensing their music to video games as a meager but steady source of cash. But as sales of video games rival Hollywood box office receipts, the music industry is taking notice. Labels now view games – with a dedicated fan base of young, affluent players – as launching pads for up-and-coming artists.” Nando Times (AP) 08/13/02

Tuesday August 13

MUSIC SALES DOWN: Sales of recorded music in the UK were down sharply in the second quarter of this year. “The British industry had been outperforming many other international markets, bucking the trend of declining sales for the first quarter of 2002 with a 5% increase. But the second quarter has seen a sharp decrease in sales of CDs, cassettes and LPs on the previous year.” The industry blames music fans preoccupation with the Queen’s Jubilee and the World Cup. BBC 08/13/02

THE “UN”-INDUSTRY: Labeling an artform such as jazz an “industry” does a disservice to the art. Industries work to become efficient, where jazz is a product of experimentation and inspiration. “A fundamental assumption of industrial culture, it seems to me, is that success is not a function of individual personalities on the front line, but of the way individuals are managed from upstairs: selected, trained, assigned to the area in which their talents are best suited, inspired by the company vision statement and provided with the proper feedback to maximize performance. Inspired musicians are not amenable to this approach.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/13/02

ONE MORE TIME – FROM THE TOP… Funny – they call is the “science” of acoustics. But if it was so scientific, why are there all these modern concert halls in which you can’t hear? Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall (home of the Toronto Symphony) is about to reopen after an acoustical makeover that took six months. The hall is famous for its poor sound – “the sweeping changes to canopies, seating and bulkheads come with a $20-million price tag. Here’s how the concert hall plans to refresh its sound…” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/13/02

BRIT MUSICIANS’ PLAN TO GET BACK ON TOP: There was a time – the 60s and 70s come to mind – when British music dominated the US pop charts. No longer. “After 10 lean years in the U.S., the industry here is proposing extraordinary measures to restore its stateside standing. Essentially, by early next year it wants to establish a rock and pop embassy-cum-trade mission in New York to be called the United Kingdom Music Office.” Los Angeles Times 08/13/02

FIRST YOU HAVE TO DEFINE IT: Is cabaret dying? Who can tell? These days it’s difficult to even define what cabaret is. “Cabaret has moved away from the clatter of cutlery in smoky rooms. These days, this highly personal art form is to be found in theatres and even art galleries.” The Times (UK) 08/13/02

THE MUSICIANS’ MUSICIAN: “Mariss Jansons may not be the most famous maestro on the block. For one thing, his career progression — from Riga to Munich via hard-slog jobs in Cardiff, Oslo and Pittsburgh — suggests a man almost pathologically averse to basking in the limelight of the world’s top musical capitals. But Jansons, who turns 60 next year, is surely the ‘musicians’ musician’, par excellence. Orchestras revere him for three reasons. He is genuine. He is genial. And he is a genius.” The Times (UK) 08/13/02

Monday August 12

LATEST/GREATEST (GOTTA HAVE IT): The recording industry is trying to sell consumers on upgrading their CD collections with a new DVD format that promises better sound. “But the new discs are also part of a wider anti-piracy plan by the record companies over the next 10 years to get rid of CDs completely, industry insiders say.” The Independent (UK) 08/10/02

COMPLEAT ME: The collector’s need to own a complete set of (fill-in-the-blank) is a compelling one. New multi-disk sets of the complete works of composers are on the market, even as the accessibility of even the most obscure music is made possible over the internet. “For most listeners, these (disks) will not exactly be casual investments. Still, when you consider the cost of two top tickets to the symphony or the opera nowadays, they are hardly exorbitant — and you will be able to play the discs endlessly. Moreover, these are not cheapo performances recorded with no-name, nonunion orchestras in obscure Eastern European cities, but celebrated, albeit somewhat older, interpretations by some of the 20th century’s leading artists.” Washington Post 08/11/02

US LAWMAKERS URGE SWAPPER PROSECUTION: Members of the US Congress are increasing pressure on the Justice Department to more vigorously prosecute file-traders. “The Justice Department should also devote more resources to policing online copyrights, the lawmakers said in their letter. ‘Such an effort is increasingly important as online theft of our nation’s creative works is a growing threat to our culture and economy’.” Wired 08/11/02

TOO MUCH FREEDOM? “Like no other director before him, Harry Kupfer, who turns 67 next month, dominated the Berlin opera scene for decades. (Even today, there are still 30 of his stagings in the repertoires of the Komische Oper and the Staatsoper.) But Kupfer was more than just a successful opera director. The story of his rise and fall is also the story of a changing Berlin, an example of the way repressive governments can ironically infuse art with expressive possibility, and a cautionary tale of what can happen when a director overindulges in hard-won artistic freedom.” Andante 08/11/02

Sunday August 11

SHELL GAME: The Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl want to replace the acoustic shell at the Bowl with one that’s acoustically superior. But preservationists have fought hard to keep the 73-year-old landmark from being taken down. Now the case has been taken to court, and replacement plans have been put on hold for at least another season. Los Angeles Times 08/10/02

Friday August 9

GOING FOR A YOUNGER AUDIENCE: Edinburgh Festival director Brian McMaster has observed that concerts that sell out in advance attract mostly an older audience. Why? Because many younger ticket-buyers buy tickets at the last minute. And they buy cheaper tickets. So this summer’s Edinburgh Festival offers a late night series with top performers – Alfred Brendel, Andras Schiff and the Hilliard Ensemble – and all tickets are priced at £5. “What I hope they will do is come to something that they wouldn’t otherwise come to, because it’s so cheap. I always tell them, come and hear John Adams, or whatever – something that they’d normally stay away from. If we can widen people’s tastes, that’s equally important.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/09/02

THE SENSATIONAL PRINCESS DI: An opera for TV about Princess Di has “perhaps unsurprisingly, already proved controversial. Earlier in the year, a headline in the Daily Mail barked: ‘Sick opera to mark five years since Diana’s death.’ (The paper was referring to an episode in the piece where Ryan, who is obsessed with the princess, employs a prostitute to dress up as her, then strips her and performs a bizarre ritual over her naked body.) ‘It would be sad if people got the impression it was a sensational piece and therefore didn’t watch it’.” The Guardian (UK) 08/09/02

MUSIC FROM ABOVE: Are music lovers willing to pay for a higher service of radio? Two satellite radio companies hope so. “So far, tens of thousands have, indeed, proven willing. XM reports that it has 137,000 subscribers and expects the number to reach 350,000 by year’s end. By 2004 or 2005, it is expecting to have four million customers, which will allow it to break even. Sirius says 60,000 car stereos equipped to receive its signal have reached the market, and it also projects strong growth.” Andante 08/08/02

Thursday August 8

ORCHESTRAS – TOO INGROWN TO THRIVE? The Chicago Symphony only recently admitted its first African American member. But the rest of the orchestra world is no better at diversity. But the problem isn’t simply racism (or sexism). “When all is said and done, there is a problem, and it lies in the very nature of the symphonic orchestra, an organism that was formed at the onset of industrial revolution and has resolutely resisted egalitarianism, electronics and multicultural values. The symphony orchestra simply bypassed the 20th century. If it wants to survive the 21st, it will need to reform from the heart – not by admitting a token outsider or staging a free concert for the poor, but by opening itself to the spirit of the times and engaging with the things that really matter.” London Evening Standard 08/06/02

BILLIONAIRE FIGHT! BILLIONAIRE FIGHT! The world’s largest media company is being sued by one of the world’s largest recording companies in the continuing fight to insure that record companies are paid for every tiny little snippet of music ever played, performed, or broadcast anywhere in the universe. The details honestly aren’t that crucial, but it’s EMI doing the suing and AOL Time Warner playing against type as the plucky underdog being sued. At issue are a couple of in-house ads running on Time Warner cable networks. BBC 08/08/02

THE ULTIMATE MOM-AND-POP OPERATION: When Itzhak Perlman and his wife Toby created their little music camp in upstate New York less than a decade ago, much of the music world was skeptical. After all, would a man of Perlman’s fame really be able to effectively relate to children in a rural summer setting? Would the camp be a real academy of learning, or just a chance to rub elbows with the world’s most famous violinist? As it turns out, Itzhak and Toby have thrown themselves into the running of the camp, and Shelter Island has quickly become one of the most successful music camps in America, not so much for the intensive nature of the musical study, but for the enthusiasm for life that the Perlmans’ campers seem to carry away with them. The New York Times 08/08/02

LISTEN, YOU CAN HEAR THE CRITICS SALIVATING: “Vittorio Sgarbi, who was fired one month ago from his position as deputy minister for cultural heritage in Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government, announced on 1 August that he plans to extend his fledgling career as an operatic director and declared himself available for new engagements.” No truth to the related rumor that an inspired John Ashcroft will resign from his attorney general’s chair to join the cast of The Producers. Andante 08/08/02

THE PIANIST WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING: Robert Levin may just be the most well-rounded musician in the world. He is 54 years old, and to date, he has been a professor at Harvard, an international music lecturer, one of the world’s preeminent early music scholars, an accomplished performer of music from all eras, and the author of a new completion of Mozart’s unfinished Requiem which many consider far superior to the original. Why such dizzying diversity? “If you are a chef, and everything you serve — French, Italian, Thai — tastes the same, you probably aren’t a very good chef,” he says. The New York Times 08/08/02

Wednesday August 7

BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE MUSIC BIZ: “Record and radio insiders report that several major record companies have quietly introduced new payment schemes for the influential middlemen known as independent promoters, or indies, who peddle songs to radio. Concerned about the runaway costs of indie promotion, which by some estimates costs the music industry more than $150 million annually, label executives say they’re determined to return some fiscal sanity to a process that to most outsiders does not appear sane.” Salon 08/07/02

CHANGES AFOOT IN CHICAGO: The longtime top man at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is stepping down from his position at the end of next season. Henry Fogel, who became CSO executive director in 1985, insists that he is not being forced out, but concerns are running high in Chicago about the orchestra’s massive operating deficit. Fogel was the occasionally controversial executive behind the renovation of the CSO’s Orchestra Hall and the hiring of Daniel Barenboim as its music director, as well as holding the chairmanship of the American Symphony Orchestra League. Chicago Tribune 08/06/02

TOKYO TRIES FOR A COMEBACK: The Tokyo String Quartet has not been the same since the departure of first violinist Peter Oundjian in 1995. Internal squabbles, lukewarm reviews, and general fatigue have contributed to the quartet’s difficulties in the fickle and fast-changing world of chamber music. But the Tokyo has a new first violinist who is generating buzz, in large part for his inexperience in the international arena, and rumor has it that the Tokyo may be on its way back into the upper echelons of string quartets. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 08/07/02

BUCKING TRADITION IN KC: It’s not likely to make orchestra purists happy, but the Kansas City Symphony is looking for ways to add visual and technological aspects to its performances. The KCS’s executive director came up with the idea, and has been scouring the country for technology providers and donors who can assist the orchestra in discovering new concert hall techniques without distracting too much from the music. Kansas City Business Journal 08/02/02

TRASH-TALKIN’ OPERA: The must-see event at this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe? Why, it’s Jerry Springer: The Opera. The show’s a hit, with a bright future in front of it. “I love its violent marriage of high and low culture. To hear the kind of vulgar chaos of Jerry Springer submitted to the disciplines of classical opera results in more than the sum of those two halves.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/07/02

MORE ORCHESTRA DEBT: Some days, you can’t throw a piccolo without hitting a symphony orchestra slipping deep into debt. The latest ensemble to announce a major deficit is the Fort Lauderdale-based Florida Philharmonic, which is reporting a $500,000 deficit for the current fiscal year, and $2.9 million of overall debt. Still, the numbers weren’t as bad as expected, and staff layoffs and cost-cutting measures are expected to lead to better days ahead. Miami Herald 08/06/02

PREVIN/MUTTER: Conductor Andre Previn and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter have married; it’s Previn’s fifth marriage, Mutter’s second. “The couple, despite their differences in age – he is 72 and she is 39 – have become inseparable over recent months after her performance in Boston of The Previn Violin Concerto, which he composed for her.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/06/02

Tuesday August 6

LIVE ON TAPE… A “live” recording of Simon Rattle’s performance last fall of Schoenberg’s two-hour cantata, Gurrelieder with the Berlin Philharmonic turns out not to be so live after all. After the performance, one of the singers was removed from the recording and replaced with another in the studio. Why? It’s a marketing thing, but is it honest? Is it artistically defensible? The New York Times 08/04/02

LEARNING ABOUT PUNK: “After a quarter century, and a zeitgeist shift or two, the phenomenon of punk has entered the twilight zone between popular culture and social history. The subject of documentaries on MTV and VH-1 (and at least one deluxe coffee-table book), the early punk scene has also drawn the attention of scholars trying to understand its significance as “cultural practice.” But don’t assume that this is some new surge of nostalgia, with footnotes as camouflage. Punk and academe have a long history together.” Chronicle of Higher Education 08/02/02

Monday August 5

WRONG ACCOUNT: “The contract filed by the record company at the time of a recording session is an important document, because it lists all the musicians on a session and serves as a record of how often a musician played, which determines his or her pension and royalty payments. But if no contract is filed, or the wrong names are used, or no names at all, musicians lose out on hundreds and thousands of dollars later. Situations like that, and the way record companies do business with artists and musicians in general, is under increasing scrutiny in today’s post-Enron climate of growing public concern about accounting irregularities in big business.” Detroit News 08/05/02

PUSHING TOO SOON: Conductor Richard Bonynge laments the way today’s young opera singers are pushed. “He believes that singers today try to do too much, too early. ‘Big beautiful voices are much harder to find today. Young singers might have great techniques, but their voices are much smaller than in the past. Everyone today has TV eyes. They want people who are good-looking and then they push them into things too quickly.” The Age (Melbourne) 08/05/02

Sunday August 4

SETTLEMENT AT ‘MOSTLY MOZART’: “Lincoln Center has reached an agreement with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, ending the four-day strike that led to the cancellation of 17 of the festival’s 27 programs, according to a joint statement released by Lincoln Center and Local 802, the New York musicians’ union. The remaining concerts that were to have featured the orchestra will not be reinstated. But the union informed its members late Friday afternoon that pickets at the festival would end.” Andante 08/03/02

• A TALE OF TWO FESTIVALS: There may be more to the Mostly Mozart strike than meets the eye. Critics are increasingly of the opinion that the management of the festival is playing with the notion of firing players or even scrapping the idea of a full-time festival orchestra altogether. Meanwhile, while Mostly Mozart is diminishing its own profile with labor disputes and cancelled concerts, the increasingly diverse but always light-hearted Lincon Center Festival continues to raise its profile and elevate its already considerable reputation. Washington Post 08/04/02

STILL AFLOAT, BUT LISTING DANGEROUSLY: With the English National Opera furiously denying rumors of cutbacks and shutdowns at every turn, there is no small amount of panic surrounding the future of opera in the UK. The ENO is one of only a handful of companies in the world presenting classic operas in the local dialect (English, in this case,) and whether or not the rumors of crisis are completely true, there can be no doubt that the company is facing a very uncertain future in an age when opera is supposed to be making a comeback. The Guardian (UK) 08/03/02

CALL OFF THE FUNERAL: Everyone agrees that there is a glut of classical recordings out there, and that the classical corner of the recording industry is a shadow of its former self. But a closer examination of the business reveals signs of health: in the wake of slumping sales and plummeting public interest, classical artists are making a real effort to reinvent the way they make and market recordings. From orchestras with their own labels to cut-price companies like Naxos to soloists willing to take a chance on trying to draw the public in to new music, small victories abound, and may signal the reemergence of classical music as an important niche market. Boston Globe 08/04/02

• BEBOP BUST: Classical recordings may be in trouble, but they are positively booming compared to jazz, which is rapidly becoming America’s forgotten music. “The typical jazz CD, even one by a fairly well-known artist, sells about 3,000 copies. A disc that sells 10,000 is considered good business. If it sells 20,000, it is, in the scheme of things, a hit… There are no jazz stars today – no instrumental musician who can float a label. Even Wynton Marsalis, perhaps the most famous living jazz musician, doesn’t sell many records; he doesn’t even have a label.” Boston Globe 08/04/02

THROUGH IT ALL, BAYREUTH STILL ALLURING: “The Bayreuth Festival, the annual month-long summer music festival dedicated exclusively to the works of German composer Richard Wagner, is an easy target for critics who attack it as elitist and artistically conservative. But for those lucky enough to get in, it is almost impossible not to fall under Bayreuth’s spell and they find themselves drawn them back year after year to this otherwise sleepy provincial town in the hope of securing one of the hardest-to-come-by tickets in the opera world today.” Nando Times (Agence France-Presse) 08/03/02

THE SIMPLE BEAUTY OF CHAMBER MUSIC: “They’re not anti-orchestra, this seemingly growing group of ardent music followers. There’s just something about chamber music that fills a place in the soul. Maybe even more so now that people seem to be looking for a personal connection – a dialogue, a one-on-one relationship – with the music. It’s just easier to imagine yourself as protagonist as a lone violin outlines the musical narrative. You and a Haydn string quartet against the world. A whole orchestra? A little too much clamoring for your spirituality.” Philadelphia Inquirer 08/04/02

FIRST AMONG EQUALS: There are between 55 and 65 string players in a full-size symphony orchestra, with 10-15 playing the same basic part at the same time in each section. So how important, really, can one violinist be? As a matter of fact, the concertmaster truly is the most important player in the orchestra, with responsibilities (and compensation) which far outstrips any other member of the ensemble. And from old taskmasters like Boston’s Joseph Silverstein (retired) to young prodigies like National Symphony’s Nurit Bar-Josef, the concertmaster has remained a vital force for leadership within the music world’s most unwieldy group of players, the orchestra. Washington Post 08/04/02

EVERYTHING MUST GO! Are you the type who can’t get enough opera? Do you swashbuckle around the house belting out arias from Don Giovanni, and frequently lament that your life includes far too few recitatives? Well, here’s your chance to look, if not sound, the part: Britain’s Royal Opera House is selling off its old costumes at mainly bargain-basement prices. Included in the sale are four decades of opera-specific costumes, and while it will certainly take some digging to find the true gems amidst the mounds of cloth and accessories, it’s a good bet early birds will be able to score that full Brunhilde outfit they’ve always wanted. BBC 08/02/02

AT LEAST IT HAS A SINGABLE TUNE: A flap is developing in the Great White North over an attempt by a Canadian MP to change the words of the country’s national anthem to be more gender-neutral. At issue is the line in ‘O, Canada’ which reads: “True patriot love in all thy sons command.” A senator has introduced a measure to change ‘sons’ to ‘youth,’ sparking all manner of controversy. This week, Canada’s Heritage Minister was warned to stay out of the debate by her government colleagues, with the biggest fear being that approval of the change would bring a rash of similar grievances from groups looking to strike such words as ‘God’ and ‘native.’ Ottawa Citizen 08/04/02

Friday August 2

A QUOTE BY ANY OTHER NAME… Bootlegs are the hottest thing in new music. “The debate over what bootlegs are and what they mean is taking place within the wider context of a culture where turntables now routinely outsell guitars, teenagers aspire to be Timbaland and the Automator, No. 1 singles rework or sample other records, and DJs have become pop stars in their own right, even surpassing in fame the very artists whose records they spin. Pop culture in general seems more and more remixed — samples and references are permeating more and more of mainstream music, film, and television, and remix culture appears to resonate strongly with consumers. We’re at the point where it almost seems unnatural not to quote, reference, or sample the world around us.” Salon 08/01/02

THE UNDESIRABLES: American musicians are having a difficult time getting through the border to Canada to perform. And many are just deciding the hassle just isn’t worth it. “Already, folk legend Willie Nelson has decided to stay south of the border. Soul singer Wilson (Wicked) Pickett cancelled his Canadian appearances following a three-hour grilling and strip search at a Canadian border last summer, during an apparent hunt for drugs.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/01/02

SEA CHANGE FOR UK OPERA? Why is the English opera world having such a fit over the forced resignation of Nicholas Payne at the English National Opera? Is it because his departure signals a backing away from a certain kind of adventurous opera? The Guardian (UK) 08/02/02

ANTI-VIBRATO MAN: Roger Norrington is on a campaign against vibrato in string instruments. “While Norrington thinks of expressive vibrato as a tiresome 20th-century affectation, certainly in 18th- and 19th-century repertoire, a good many listeners would still rather hear their music ‘with’ than ‘without’. Why? ‘It’s partly fashion,’ Norrington insists. ‘People want music gift- wrapped. They want it to sound grand. If you make a big ‘trembling’ effect on the note, people think you’re big, too. It’s like a balloon: you put your name on a little balloon; you blow it up as big as you can, and then your name is huge’!” The Independent (UK) 08/02/02

HITS FROM AFAR: Australia’s into music – just not particularly Australian music. A survey of the pop charts shows that foreign bands and singers dominate. “An Australian artist was at the number one position in the single chart for 14 of the past 70 weeks, just one in every five weeks. And many of those weeks were dominated by an Aussie who spends little time here – Kylie Minogue.” The Age (Melbourne) 08/02/02

Thursday August 1

MOZART MUSICIANS IN A WEAK POSITION: Oh, but didn’t Lincoln Center cancel all its resident orchestra concerts in a hurry when the orchestra’s musicians declared a strike. The festival seems in a mood to reinvent, and the players are already the highest-paid freelancers in the US. Has the musicians’ union overestimated its position? Is this the excuse Lincoln Center needs to do away with its resident ensemble? The New York Times 08/01/02

WAR ON MUSIC: “During the last three years, the battle against file sharing has become the entertainment industry’s version of the War on Drugs, an expensive, protracted, apparently ineffective and seemingly misguided battle against a contraband that many suggest does little harm. The labels’ main strategy — busting the biggest dealers in an attempt to strangle the supply of free MP3s, while offering few palatable solutions to stem the demand — is a classic tactic from the War on Drugs book, and it has failed just as clearly.” Salon 07/31/02

IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO STAGE THE RING: Canada has never had Wagner’s Ring cycle performed within its borders, and the Canadian Opera Company plans to change that. An all-star roster of directors was announced for the project this week, and the company will use at least two different venues over three years for the project. The operas have been scheduled, one per year, to begin in 2004, with the full cycle being performed three times during the COC’s 2005-06 season. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 08/01/02

AND OPERA DOESN’T HAVE TO DEAL WITH BUD SELIG: Cooperstown, New York, is best known as the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. But the little town on Lake Otsego has another claim to fame, as the headquarters of the unlikely operatic success story known as Glimmerglass Opera. “Preconceived notions are easily left behind at this homey, lakeside opera house at this operatic laboratory that takes innovative new looks at old works, turns opera history’s flops into hits, and then exports them to the New York City Opera and other opera companies of the world.” Philadelphia Inquirer 08/01/02

A FACE LIFT IN CLEVELAND: “The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that it will receive grants totaling $1.6 million from two local foundations toward its $14 million Blossom Redevelopment Campaign. The campaign, which so far has raised $10.5 million, is for capital improvements to… the orchestra’s summer home in Cuyahoga Falls. The redevelopment campaign includes upgrades to the pavilion, lighting and walkways; better access for disabled people; enhancements to parking, restrooms, picnic areas and concessions; and preservation of the natural landscape.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 07/31/02

Wednesday July 31

THE WORLD’S LARGEST CHAMBER MUSIC FEST: The Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival is the largest chamber music fest in the world. “Last year, with 106 concerts, attendance reached 57,000.” How did the nine-year-old festival get so popular? Director Julian Armour says “he has succeeded by refusing to pander to his public, with relatively unknown composers such as Lutoslawski, Dutilleux and Romberg co-habiting alongside Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. This is an event for purists: unlike some ‘classical’ music festivals in this country, in Ottawa there are no Celtic fiddlers or Dixieland bands.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/31/02

ROADMAP THROUGH A FLOOD: Last year a tropical storm flooded the Houston Symphony’s home and damaged its extensive music library. Now the orchestra is trying to salvage what it can. “Though the restored music cannot be reused, musicians use it to re-create lost pencil markings on scores that contain unique musical imprints of Sir John Barbarolli and other esteemed conductors. Without handwritten dynamics of phrasing and tempo or bowing symbols for strings, a score of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony would read like a city map without street names.” Dallas Morning News 07/31/02

HITTING STRIDE: Tony Hall has been running Covent Garden for a year now. It’s a job that has eaten up lesser incumbents, but Hall has had a good year. He “has successfully wrestled with the pricing policy, gone some way towards encouraging new audiences and young artists with the studio theatres run by the former Royal Ballet dancer Deborah Bull, and increased the number of live relays on to big screens, which have included the ballet company for the first time. He will also shortly announce a £200,000 surplus.” The Independent (UK) 07/29/02

Tuesday July 30

MOSTLY CANCELLED: Critics might be looking forward to a revamped Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, but the musicians evidently have their reservations. The festival orchestra went on strike Monday afternoon, forcing the cancellation of 17 concerts. Andante 07/29/02

WHAT GOES AROUND… Emile Subirana, the union boss in Montreal who made headlines this spring when he wrote a venomous letter on behalf of the musicians of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, is facing removal from his position at the head of the guild following a unanimous vote in favor of his ouster by 100 guild members. Subirana had faced intense scrutiny in recent months over his salary and request for “consulting” payments from the union. In addition, his open letter to the MSO accusing music director Charles Dutoit of being a tyrant and abusing his power led directly to Dutoit’s abrupt resignation from the post he had held with the orchestra for 25 years. Montreal Gazette 07/30/02

ISRAEL PHIL CANCELS AMERICAN TOUR: The Israel Philharmonic has canceled its American tour. “There were reports that the group could not find an insurance company willing to cover them for the trip, and that security firms were reluctant to guard the musicians and audiences.” BBC 07/30/02

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: “The Washington Chamber Symphony, which presented a series of venturesome and enormously popular concerts at the Kennedy Center for more than a quarter-century, has voted itself out of existence, effective tomorrow.” The decision is a somber reflection of the state of many smaller orchestras – the WCS was wildly popular in the district, and had no problem selling tickets to its performances, and yet still could not manage to stay afloat after multiple budget cuts and retoolings. Washington Post 07/30/02

WOULDN’T SOUNDLESS VIOLAS BE BETTER? “If traditional concert performances leave you sighing for more, you can look forward to an opera where musicians squeeze squishy embroidered balls, play soundless violins and bang on glowing bugs with antennae… These instruments, [designed at MIT,] allow users to concentrate on some of the essential, holistic aspects of music like phrasing, texture shaping, variation or collaborative performance — activities that are quite difficult for children who are concentrating on mastering traditional instruments. The toys are designed to cover a gamut of experiences, from fun and play to serious concentration, analysis and synthesis of information.” Wired 07/30/02

NEW LEADERSHIP IN PALERMO: “The governing board of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo has appointed the retired baritone Claudio Desderi as its next superintendent, effective with the 2002–03 season. He will succeed Francesco Giambrone, a cardiologist-cum-music critic whose term as superintendent expired last month… Teatro Massimo, inaugurated in 1897, is the second largest historic opera house in Europe (after the Paris Opéra’s Palais Garnier). Following an extensive, costly and contentious renovation that dragged on for 23 years, the Massimo provisionally reopened in 1997 but still faces major problems.” Andante 07/30/02

ODE TO SILENCE: Silence is much underrated – in our music, and in our everyday world. It’s increasingly difficult to find quiet. “Once the air was filled with music. Now it is filled with noise. The young have never heard silence. In our polluted world they will never be able to hear it.” The Times (UK) 07/30/02

COMPETITION CORRUPTION: At its best, the tradition of musical competition is a way of preparing young musicians for the pressures of the professional world, and a proving ground for young soloists on the verge of greatness. But the world’s great competitions haven’t been at their best for quite some time, and these days, corruption and cutthroat tactics are the rule at most events. Pianist Nikolai Petrov, a veteran of the circuit, is proposing major reforms, and many observers are saying that the competitive world would do well to listen before it becomes completely irrelevant. Andante 07/30/02

PERHAPS, FINALLY, THE END, MAYBE: We should know better by now, of course, than to believe the dozens of death knells which have been sounded for Napster over the past year. Several months back, the song swapper appeared to be on the verge of shutdown, only to find itself being bought up by European media giant Bertelsmann. But the executive who drove the acquisition and who reportedly saved Napster from being folded earlier has resigned, and analysts say it’s unlikely the project will survive without him. BBC 07/30/02

Monday July 29

WORST OF TIMES FOR ENO: “The past weeks have indeed been the stuff of nightmare for the English National Opera company. It has lost its general director, Nicholas Payne, amid rows over falling box-office revenues, widespread criticism of its artistic standards and questions over the future. Audiences have been averaging just 60 per cent this season, at a time when ENO needs to fill seats to cope with an alarming £500,000 deficit. So far it has failed to find its form, despite efforts to produce innovative interpretations of classic operas, as well as new work.” The Independent (UK) 07/28/02

SAN JOSE BANKRUPTCY: The 123-year-old San Jose Symphony has decided to file for bankruptcy. The orchestra shut down in June, “has debts of more than $3 million and its only assets are its sheet music, acoustic shell and office equipment, which even by liberal estimates are only worth $300,000.” San Jose is the largest American city without an orchestra. Nando Times (AP) 07/28/02

GOING IT ALONE (IS SO MUCH BETTER): As recording companies drop top artists and orchestras, more and more are making and selling their own. “The big companies are becoming obsolete. There’s no need for them at this point. They can provide tremendous exposure. Now, with the Internet, you can get that yourself. Good recordings can be made for as little as $20,000, and break even with sales as modest as 1,500.” Philadelphia Inquirer 07/28/02

IN SEARCH OF DIVERSITY: The Chicago Symphony recently hired its first-ever African-American musician as a member of the orchestra. Many critics wonder why it took so long. The answer is far from simple. Chicago Tribune 07/28/02

MUSIC IN THE MOUNTAINS: The Aspen Music Festival is one of the largest teaching camps in the US. Few if any of the 750 young people here will be the new Yo-Yo Ma, yet they swarm through this chic town, eager and hoping for the best. The most beautiful of arts offers career success to several and frustration to many. There is a kinship here with history’s ambitious laborers and their largely unprofitable mines. Beauty beguiles the soul, but finding a way to make it feed the stomach is less easy. Quite rightly, such paradox is ignored at places like this.” The New York Times 07/29/02

SING SING: Minnesota is full of choirs. “Known as a ‘choral mecca,’the state is about to greet singing pilgrims from all over the world as host to the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music, with 3,000-plus attendees from more than 50 countries. A concurrent International Choral Festival will entail some 40 public concerts – almost all of them free – by 31 choirs from six continents.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune 07/28/02

Sunday July 28

MOSTLY (SAVING) MOZART: For decades Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival has been an audience favorite. But it was time for it to be overhauled, and Lincoln Center Programmer Jane Moss was up for the job. “Mostly Mozart was the Vatican, and I was spray-painting it. In reality, it was like a wonderful landmark hotel, frayed at the edges. It needed renovation. But of course everybody wants change until you start to change it. Then everybody gets nervous.” The New York Times 07/28/02

Friday July 26

ENO DENIES CUTBACK REPORT: The English National Opera denies a report that it is considering drastically scaling back its operations and becoming a part time operation (see story below). A “spokeswoman said the reports were ‘speculation and rumour’and called the idea of a part-time company an ‘illogical scenario’. And the spokeswoman dismissed suggestions of large-scale job losses.” BBC 07/26/02

• A “DISASTER” FOR BRITISH OPERA? “The troubled English National Opera is considering closing for 16 months, making large numbers of its 500 staff redundant, before shrinking to a part-time company. The ENO, which received £13m in public funds last year, is battling to redress its deficit with a two-year plan to save £700,000, as well as fielding criticism over risky ‘toilet humour’ productions and mildly disappointing box office figures this season. Across the company, jobs left vacant have not been replaced.” And just last week, Nicholas Payne, the ENO’s adventurous director was pushed into resigning. The Guardian (UK) 07/26/02

THE NEW (OLD) SALZBURG: The Salzburg Festival, as envisioned by Gerard Mortier, was an adventurous and often controversial romp through music of many eras, with a damn-the-torpedos spirit which occasionally alienated some high-profile performers. But Mortier is gone, and new festival director Peter Ruzicka has taken a decided turn towards safety and tradition. Mortier’s beloved contemporary music series is dead in the water, the ultra-conservative Vienna Philharmonic has been returned to festival prominence, and Mozart and Richard Strauss will be the most prominently featured composers for the foreseeable future. Outrageous? Cowardly? Maybe. But ticket sales are up 16%. Andante 07/26/02

LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE: The debate has been raging for decades now: are period instruments the only real way to appreciate old music, or is the whole “performance practice” movement a bunch of overblown pomposity masquerading as sophistication? This year’s Glyndebourne Festival aims to explore both sides of the issue as one of the world’s premier ‘authentic instrument’ ensembles and one of the UK’s finest symphony orchestras work alongside each other in a bold experiment in period opera. The Christian Science Monitor 07/26/02

SOME GOOD NEWS IN ST. LOUIS: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is doing pretty well for an ensemble which was on the verge of bankruptcy less than a year ago. The SLSO announced this week that it is more than halfway towards a $40 million fund-raising goal which would trigger a matching gift from one of the city’s wealthiest families. The vast majority of the funds raised will go towards boosting the orchestra’s sagging endowment, and the rest will be used to cover operating expenses and debt. St. Louis Business Journal 07/24/02

WORKING AGAINST MUSIC: An archaic law in Britain requiring pubs to obtain a music license if they feature live performances is cutting down the number of clubs with music. “The difficulty for pubs is often that the cost of the licence can be up to £5,000 in some areas, a crippling extra cost for small community pubs. The result is a collapse in the number of pubs with live music, particularly pubs formerly well known among musicians for informal sessions.” The Guardian (UK) 07/26/02

MEET THE CLASSICAL SPICE GIRLS: Introducing… the Opera Babes. Yes, you heard right, and no, you don’t need to see a picture to get the basic gist of their success. (But here’s a hint: their publicity shot finds them sprawled on the hood of a car.) They can actually sing, although their program is decidedly on the light side, and the blatant marketability of their act has brought the wrath of critics down on their heads. But it seems to be that word that sticks most in everyone’s mind: babes. In fact, the Opera Babes are hardly the only ones to be exploiting the sheer political incorrectness of such a moniker for box office success. The Christian Science Monitor 07/26/02

VIVALDI.COM: “Within twelve months, Antonio Vivaldi’s musical output — or at least a substantial portion of it — will be available to all Web users, who will be able to listen to pieces and read their scores simultaneously… Should promises be kept, this will be the first step in the actual implementation of a long-planned program, known to specialists since 1997 as Archivio Digitale della Musica Veneta.” Andante 07/26/02

TWO ORCHESTRAS NAMED PHIL: After a name change by one of them, Seoul Korea now has two orchestras with the same name. One is owned by the city, while the other is fielded by a private company. “The infighting was caused by the private orchestra, which was founded in Nov. 1991. The former New Seoul Phil deleted the “new’’ on the ground that this gave the impression it was an offshoot of the Seoul Phil, which prompted the strong protest by that orchestra. The Seoul Phil was founded in 1945 and is the oldest orchestra in the country.” Korea Times 07/26/02

Thursday July 25

WORST CONCERT SEASON SINCE 70s: This is shaping up as one of the worst years ever for the pop concert business. “Touring concerts in the first six months of 2002 generated $613 million, down more than 14 percent and $100 million from the same time period last year, according to the trade publication Billboard Boxscore. Pollstar, another industry journal, reports that about 10.6 million tickets were sold for the top 50 concert tours in North America this year, compared with 12.9 million tickets sold in 2000.” Denver Post 07/25/02

EVERYTHING BUT THE MUSIC: This year’s opening Proms concerts have been marked by bite-size pieces of music and distracting light shows. “This vulgar farrago was not for the benefit of those of us in the hall who had already demonstrated our commitment to concert-going. It was for the (supposedly) less discerning television audience, with their (supposedly) fickle attention spans. It was another example of the BBC treating the Proms series and its loyal Albert Hall audience as of secondary importance to the whims of television programme-makers. And it raises wider questions about the corporation’s stewardship of what has, with reason, been called the world’s greatest music festival. Until now.” London Evening Standard 07/24/02

SOMETHING CRUCIAL MISSING: Why is British jazz ailing? “The majority of new releases in this country are substandard, half-hearted affairs that deserve praise only in comparison to some of the real rubbish that gets out. There are two problems here. One is the general standard of musicianship, which just isn’t as high as it is in America… New Statesman 07/22/02

SIGNIFICANTLY SPAIN: “Music celebrates instinct and irrationality; and the Iberian peninsula serves as Europe’s nether region – a zone of fierce, loud, foot-tappingly infectious pleasure. For Russian composers, condemned to the snow, Spain has always signified release, irresponsibility, a perpetual rite of spring. It allowed them to be capricious. Stendhal said that Italian music relied on melody, German music on harmony. The life of Spanish music derives from rhythm and its bodily agitation.” New Statesman 07/22/02

CAMPING WITH THE PERLMANS: Toby and Itzhak Perlman had the dream of a summer camp where talented young musicians could learn without being tortured for their talent. “In Toby’s dream all gifted young musicians are nurtured with kindness and respect. They develop social skills and learn to share the spotlight. If they don’t master the music, it is the teacher’s failure. And if they burn out young, an overly ambitious parent may be hovering backstage.” The New York Times 07/25/02

LIFE AFTER CLASSICAL: It’s been three years since Jacksonville, Florida’s only classical music station abandoned the format to become a talk station. So how’s it going? Well – ratings are up 70 percent. But that’s little consolation for the small but loyal classical music fans who miss the old WJCT. Florida Times-Union 07/24/02

Wednesday July 24

MUSICIANS ALLEGE FRAUD: Musicians testified before a California state senate committee Tuesday that the recording companies “routinely underreports royalties and cheats artists of millions of dollars.” One attorney charged that the companies “underpay 10 to 40 percent on every royalty and dare artists to challenge it without killing their careers.” Nando Times (AP) 07/23/02

SEARCHING FOR DIVERSITY: The classical music world is not exactly a racially diverse work environment – nearly all orchestral musicians are white or Asian, and African-Americans are virtually non-existant among the throng. The Sphinx Competition in Michigan is one of the few programs designed to combat that lack of diversity, and it got a big boost this week when the Detroit Symphony Orchestra agreed to donate the use of its hall, its resources, and itself to the Sphinx. The DSO is one of the only orchestras in the world with a demonstrated commitment to increasing racial diversity in music. Detroit Free Press 07/24/02

BAD BOY OF MUSIC: Recent translations of Mozart’s letters are more exact – and more explicit – than previous versions. The composer’s coarse language and preoccupation with body functions is off-putting. The question is – how does his foul demeanor square with the elegance of his music? Andante 07/23/02

Tuesday July 23

SAME OLD SAME OLD: Why does contemporary opera seem so flat? Greg Sandow writes that “if all they do is tell familiar stories in familiar ways, they carry a built-in risk of disappointing audiences. For one thing, ordinary media — movies, books, TV, and theater — already tell these stories perfectly well. What can opera add? Secondly, there’s no accepted way to write an opera in our time, no common operatic language that composers all agree on. Each opera — implicitly, at least — has to explain itself. Why does it exist? Why should anybody listen to it? What does it give us that we couldn’t get anywhere else?” Andante 07/19/02

WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO BE A COMPOSER TOO? New music software programs have become so powerful they have put the power of professional studio setups in the hands of the average consumer. “In many ways, the explosion in the power and popularity of these programs is a parallel to the explosion of MP3s and digital distribution of music. MP3s allow artists to work around the traditional record label channels, distributing music directly to fans. Meanwhile, digital music creation tools have given aspiring artists access to tools and sounds that were found only in professional studios (at a prohibitive cost) just a few years ago.” Wired 07/23/02

ALL ABOUT THE STORIES: At 36, David McVicar is “widely ranked the hottest talent on the international opera circuit; and his special genius is for telling stories on a big scale but with clarity and focus. At a time when opera staging seems in danger of abandoning narrative responsibility in favour of interpretative fancy – the bourgeois-battering aesthetic of Figaros set on futuristic rubbish dumps and Don Giovannis on a slip-road to the M6 – McVicar has emerged as something like a champion of old-fashioned values.” The Telegraph (UK) 07/23/02

RING-A-DING-DING: Cell phones going off during performances is a major irritation for audience and performer alike. But one composer has written an entire symphony for an orchestra of cell phones. It’s called – groan – The New Ring Cycle, and it was performed last weekend in England by the 30-piece mobile orchestra, Cheltenham SIM-phone-ya. Nuff said. BBC 07/23/02

Monday July 22

THE STRAIN OF STANDING IN FOR ELGAR: In the four years since composer Anthony Payne’s fleshing out and completion of Elgar’s Third Symphony, the piece has been performed an amazing 150 times. Yet, after the premiere of the piece, Payne almost lost himself. “Everyone thought it was because of the strain of the Elgar, but it wasn’t really, it was the strain of 30 years of freelance life, not taking holidays. We all overwork because we love music so much, but that’s bad. You get so obsessed, you wear yourself out without realising it.” The Telegraph (UK) 07/22/02

AND IF YOU DON’T LIKE THEM… A collection of traditional Mafia songs has been recorded and is about to be released in the US. And Italians on both sides of the Atlantic aren’t happy. “The songs, a mix of more sedate strummed folk forms and fast accordion-laced tarantella dance, are filled with lyrics in Mafia slang that expound on its bloody code of honor and respect. ‘Whoever took the liberty to neglect their duties, I’ll slaughter him like an animal,’ goes one song. ‘And if someone dares to talk, I’ll whet my knife for him’.” The New York Times 07/22/02

BANDING TOGETHER: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina had 4000 5th grade students enrolled in its orchestra programs this past year. But that didn’t stop the school board from cutting the program to solve budget problems. Concerned parents and volunteers quickly mobilized to start new private band and orchestra programs and so far have created a program for hundreds of students. “Still, even these optimistic educators say, it will be impossible to replicate the equal opportunity the school system created: The public school programs were largely free, though students did have to rent instruments. Privately run programs cost money.” Charlotte Observer 07/21/02

ABANDONING ITS CORE? The English National Opera is one of the largest opera companies in the world. But the company says it plans to reign in the controversial productions for which it has been famous. Attendance is down, and the company recently forced out its adventurous general director. “Critics of the proposed strategy say that if the company abandons its venerated tradition of performing challenging works solely in English and opts for more obvious crowd-pullers instead, its distinctive edge will be lost. That is the justification for its £13.9 million-a-year subsidy from the Arts Council, which might then be reduced.” The Observer (UK) 07/21/02

Sunday July 21

KICKING OFF THE PROMS: The BBC Proms in London may be the world’s most successful large-scale classical music festival, and it kicked off again this weekend. “The 75th BBC proms features 73 concerts over two months, culminating in the famously patriotic Last Night.” From crossover artists to football chants to contemporary music to the standards of the repertoire, the Proms usually has something for everyone – especially if everyone enjoys waving flags and tea towels and belting out ‘Rule, Brittania” in drunken fashion. The Guardian (UK) 07/19/02

• IT AIN’T PERFECT, BUT… “The Proms has already endured its annual dose of controversy with the decision to perform the instrumental version of Rule Britannia – with the public expected to add a few nationalistic sentiments – instead of the version with full seven verses and choruses led by a soloist.” But controversy or no, the Proms remains one of the world’s best-loved festivals, and certainly one of the most outsized displays of the love of classical music in a world increasingly determined to ignore it. The Independent (UK) 07/20/02
• ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE: “Got any complaints about the Proms? Does new music drive you nuts? Or do you feel that a fine patriotic tradition is being diluted by ‘lunatic political correctness’? The buck stops with Nicholas Kenyon; director of the season of concerts that gets columnists – and colonels – in a kerfuffle.” The Independent (UK) 07/14/02

A BIT OF BACH FOR EVERYONE: Leipzig, Germany, is not a large city, but ever since the great Johann Sebastian Bach served as kapellmeister at one of its churches, the town has been a revered dot on the musical map. And since the mid-20th century, Leipzig has been home to one of the most extensive, and exclusive, libraries of scholarly material on the composer. Now, the library’s Harvard-educated director wants to open up the institution’s vast holdings for public perusal, rather than continuing to restrict the majority of the material for scholarly use. Funding is tight, but interest is high. Andante (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) 07/21/02

MORE REASONS WHY YOU CAN’T HAVE A STRAD: In America, the largest roadblocks to a musician gaining access to one of the world’s great instruments are prohibitive cost and hoarding collectors. In Russia, the biggest stumbling block may be the cost of insurance. Rates for coverage of a Stradivarius violin or Amati viola can run thousands of dollars per year, and even the concept of insuring valuable instruments is fairly new in the former Soviet bloc. Moscow Times 07/19/02

KC COMPLEX FACES FUNDING DELAY: Kansas City’s proposed $304 million performing arts center took a financial hit this week when the city delayed a ballot initiative which would have provided $40 million of funding towards the construction of the complex. Arts groups in the area believed that the measure, which would have included a 1/8-cent sales tax increase, had a good chance of passage in the fall elections, and arts leaders were caught by surprise when the chamber of commerce announced that the initiative would be delayed until 2004. Kansas City Star 07/20/02

• HARD TIMES ALL OVER: “Reflecting the financial woes of state governments across the country, both the Missouri Arts Council and the Kansas Arts Commission will have less money to fund grants to arts organizations in the fiscal year that began July 1. In Missouri, the state arts council began the new fiscal year with a budget of $3.9 million, about a 30 percent reduction from the previous year.” Kansas City Star 07/18/02

HUSTLING FOR A MUSICAL BUCK: String quartets have cult followings, and major orchestra musicians are financially secure and tend to engender a certain respect from the public, but the vast majority of professional musicians enjoy no such prestige as they struggle to keep themselves in rosin and reeds. The freelance market in most big cities is brutally competitive, and it can be impossibly tough to crack the ranks of the top players. It’s easy to become paranoid and cynical, and freelancers must keep their schedules completely clear and available for gigs, lest contractors quit calling after being turned down once or twice. But, as they say, no one gets into this business for the money. Chicago Tribune 07/21/02

BUT DO ANY OF THEM SPEAK CONDUCTOR? Boston’s New England Conservatory has been famous for decades for its outstanding youth music program. NEC’s various youth orchestras tour the world, playing to sold out crowds in cities as diverse as Caracas and Prague, and the school’s legacy of turning out some of America’s top young musicians is nearly unmatched. This month, NEC plays host to the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, a trilingual ensemble made up of 110 teenagers from 20 different countries, which will shortly be embarking on a tour of the Western hemisphere. Boston Globe 07/21/02

MANY ORCHESTRAS WOULD KILL FOR THIS PROBLEM: The Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra in Mississippi is seeing its concert hall get a complete overhaul at no cost to the orchestra. Great, right? Well, it seems that the renovation includes the removal of some 200 seats, which will likely leave the GCSO with fewer seats per performance than it has ticket buyers. The orchestra isn’t objecting to the plan officially, but privately, officials are worried about the financial and public relations impact. The Sun-Herald (Biloxi, MS) 07/21/02

SEYMOUR SOLOMON, 80: “Seymour Solomon, who with his brother, Maynard, founded Vanguard Records in 1950 and turned it into the dominant label for American folk music, recording such artists as Joan Baez, Odetta, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Ian & Sylvia, died yesterday at his summer home in Lenox, Mass.” The New York Times 07/20/02

ALAN LOMAX, 87: “Alan Lomax, the celebrated musicologist who helped preserve America’s and the world’s heritage by making thousands of recordings of folk, blues and jazz musicians from the 1930s onward, died Friday in Florida. He was 87.” Calgary Herald 07/21/02

Friday July 19

ATLANTA OPERA CUTS: “Feeling the sting of an unstable economy, the Atlanta Opera is laying off staff members and dealing pay cuts to top administrators to keep its $823,000 deficit in check.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 07/18/02

DETROIT LOSES ITS LAST CLASSICAL MUSIC RECORDINGS STORE: “Harmony House Classical stocks tens of thousands of CDs, videos and DVDs, ranging from the latest by composer John Adams to the obscure operas of Alexander Zemlinksky. The store has been a locus for classical music in metro Detroit for more than a decade, offering not only a huge selection but also the welcoming feel of a neighborhood tavern.” Detroit Free Press 07/18/02

POWER OF PROTEST: “The British and American charts no longer provide a home for political songs. No new bands with a political bent have emerged in years. Even redoubtable old stagers have apparently given up – it’s always possible that Bob Dylan is still protesting about something, but as no one can understand a word he sings these days, his choice of subject-matter seems rather beside the point.” Still, the power of protest songs is great. The BBC recently canvased world leaders to find out what protest songs they liked. The Guardian (UK) 07/19/02

ARE CONCERTS PASSE? Violinist David Lasserson has some concerns about the static nature of classical music concert. “If the life of the performance is in its sound, why should everyone face the same way, in a darkened auditorium before a lit stage? How could the mind fail to wander in such a situation? The classical concert has retained 19th-century performance protocol in providing an unchanging, formal setting for music. In the debate about how to attract young audiences to the concert hall, we have to ask questions about the concert hall itself. Is our culture too visual to support this activity? Is the end in sight for the static concert?” The Guardian (UK) 07/19/02

TO EVERY SEASON… Composer Philip Glass reflects on how the composition of music has changed since the late 20th Century: “The impact of digital technology has also been pervasive in the music world. It has influenced almost all aspects of composers’ work: how their music is notated, how it is performed, how it is recorded and even how it is published. Furthermore, even when technology is used as a tool, it turns out to be much more than a passive collaborator.” Andante 07/18/02

LOOKING TOWARDS HOME: James Conlon is that rarest of all musical beasts: an American conductor with a global profile and the trust of European musicians. Conlon, who left America for Europe two decades ago after surmising that American orchestras do not like to hire American music directors, is looking to come home as his tenure in Cologne and Paris comes to an end. Rumor has him at the top of the list of candidates to succeed Christoph Eschenbach as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s summer festival at Ravinia, but Conlon is likely to have many options for employment the minute he makes his return to America official. Chicago Sun-Times 07/18/02

Thursday July 18

HUZZAHS FOR HAITINK: Everyone loves Bernard Haitink, who was covered in praise at his farewell performances as music director last weekend at Covent Garden. “The tributes have been so fulsome that one hesitates to inject a note of realism – to remind ourselves, for instance, that Haitink has been threatening to resign almost from the moment the ink dried on his contract and that his role in the running of the company has been, at best, peripheral and, with the best intentions in the world, regressive. The issues that he fudged and the problems he stored up for future generations form a central part of his legacy.” London Evening Standard 07/17/02

THE ART OF SOUND: “The borderlines among sound art, experimental music and contemporary composition used to be clearer, policed by mutual disdain. Sharing the same tiny ghetto in the rear-corner record store bins and 2-to-5-a.m. airwaves, the practitioners of these various strains of what a friend once summarized colorfully as “unlistenable, self-indulgent crap” gradually began to realize that they were playing to the same audience.” LAWeekly 07/18/02

PROTESTING ABOUT PAYNE: Prominent figures in Britain’s opera world are protesting the English National Opera’s dsmissal of director Nicholas Payne. In a letter to the Times, nine prominent conductors and directors, including three ex-ENO leaders, wrote that “the ENO’s treatment of a great experimenter was as dangerous for the future of opera as it was shabby. Payne is the most experienced professional still working in British opera. His sin….seems to be that he has taken too seriously ENO’s tradition of being at the forefront of operatic experiment.” The Times (UK) 07/18/02

DEATH OF THE ICONOCLASTS: The recent deaths of American composers Ralph Shapey and Earle Brown recall a long-gone era in American music. “Musical New York in the 1960s – when both men were casting long shadows, and mine was considerably shorter – was wonderfully astir. New names carried new hopes: Pierre Boulez, Lincoln Center, the National Endowment. Every month, or so it seemed, there was something new from Shapey… LAWeekly 07/18/02

Wednesday July 17

VINYL CAFE: An increasing number of pop artists are releasing their music on vinyl. “Australian Record Industry Association figures show that unit sales of 12-inch vinyl, which plunged to an all-time low in 1998, had more than doubled by the end of 2000, since which time sales have steadied. In the same period, CD sales also rose, although more moderately, while cassettes faded into obscurity.” Some audiophiles insist vinyl sound is superior to CDs (and the cover artwork is better, besides). The Age (Melbourne) 07/17/02

WORLDWIDE REQUIEM: In commemoration of the toppling of the the World Trade Center last year, there are plans for a worldwide Mozart Requiem. Each performance will take place at 8:46 AM in each time zone, beginning at the international date line. “So far, 30 choirs from Europe, Asia, Central America and the United States are scheduled to perform the piece and as many as 125 are considering participation in what organizers are calling the ‘Rolling Requiem’.” Nando Times (AP) 07/17/02

STARS OF TOMORROW? Last year London’s Royal Opera started an apprentice program for promising stars of tomorrow, a program funded by star funder Alberto Vilar. So how has the first crop of singers fared? “Taking their first concert nine months ago as the point of comparison, all of them have clearly profited in some respect from their coaching and deserve further encouragement. But I didn’t feel that any stars of the future had been hatched, and, overall, I was mildly disappointed. Is this really the best that we can do nowadays?” The Telegraph (UK) 07/17/02

THE ENO MESS: The English National Opera is a mess. And the sudden departure of director Nicholas Payne last week is only a symptom, not a cause. “Payne had plenty of fresh ideas. What nobbled him at once, however, was the disunited front presented by the artistic and musical management below him. Their wrangling meant that a lot of decisions were taken behind someone’s back or over someone else’s dead body, and, without any coherent sense of purpose, the company’s performance continued to look shaky. Casting was erratic – old favourites were ignored, and young singers either over-used or under-used. The quality of the chorus and orchestra continued to decline. The Telegraph (UK) 07/17/02

Tuesday July 16

MONEY UP, NUMBERS DOWN: Concert grosses in the US were up 17 percent in the first half of 2002. But that’s only because ticket prices are up. The average ticket price is now $51. The “top 50 concerts combined sold about 10.6 million tickets, down 300,000, or 3 percent, from last year. In 2000, 12.9 million tickets were sold in the first half of the year. ‘When you’ve lost essentially 2 million ticket buyers in the space of a couple of years, you have to wonder where those people went and what it will take to bring them back’.” Baltimore Sun (AP) 07/16/02

GOING IT ALONE: When it came time for the San Francisco Symphony to renogotiate its recording contract, it found it was unable to make a deal with its recording company. So the orchestra set up its own label. So far it’s been a success. “Of the initial pressing of 10,000 copies of the Mahler Sixth, about 9,000 have already been sold – 4,000 internationally, 2,500 by traditional distribution routes in the United States and Canada, and 2,500 through the Symphony’s in-house store and Web site.” That’s pretty good in an industry where selling 5000 copies is considered respectable. San Francisco Chronicle 07/16/02

VIRTUAL TINY: For tiny recording labels, getting product into record stores is more difficult than recording it. Large chains and corporate buying make it difficult for companies like New Albion, a specialist in offbeat music, to stay alive. Now the internet is helping. “When the Web site launched in 1995, we immediately got three orders – from Australia, Uruguay and Kansas, the three hardest places on earth to find our records. It showed me there is interest in non-mainstream music. We have this tiny little beacon out there now, and anyone can find it.” San Francisco Chronicle 07/16/02

• BUT IS IT STILL CLASSICAL? Traditional classical music might be a hard sell in the record stores these days. But “healthy sales for the Silk Road album, Billy Joel’s Chopinesque Fantasies & Delusions and other crossover fare tend to confirm industry optimism. No one who witnessed the Three Tenors phenomenon or flutist James Galway’s sprawling popularity can forget how expandable the market for classical artists can be when the public gets turned on. But the trend is controversial and has plenty of detractors.” San Francisco Chronicle 07/16/02

Monday July 15

CHINESE CANCELLATION: A lavish 14-city US tour of a Chinese National Opera production of Turandot sponsored by the Chinese government and promoted by Three Tenors impressario Tibor Rudas, has been canceled because of poor ticket sales. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 07/15/02

THE MONSTER MASH: The latest thing in music? “DJs and tech-savvy geeks are using the latest music-manipulating software to merge two original, often classic songs into a single new tune with a wild sound. Fresh enough that no one has quite settled on a name, this newest musical species is called a ‘mash-up’ or ‘bootleg.’The resulting concoctions are strange – simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. As a market event, the mash-up signals a music-industry sea change that’s toppling old-world notions of control and ownership.” Dallas Morning News 07/14/02

EXCAVATING AMERICA’S PIONEERS: Conventional wisdom used to be that American music before World War I was derivative and not “distinctly” American. “Copland, Virgil Thomson and others of their generation wrote disparagingly of the musical ‘childhood’ and ‘adolescence’of precursors they ignored or never knew. With the passage of time, this simple evoutionary scheme seems ever less supportable. In the case of American music for solo piano, it may even be argued that what came before 1920 was as impressive as what came after.” The New York Times 07/14/02

IS CLASSICAL MUSIC DYING? If classical music is dying, then “how do you explain the surging popularity of live opera performances? Or the widespread excitement generated by organizations like the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic? Or the increase in concert attendance nationwide?” San Francisco Chronicle 07/15/02

• SUPPLY W/O DEMAND: The classical music recording business is ailing, with sales falling each year. Maybe the market was oversaturated? “”At the end of the LP (record) era, let’s say that 10,000 or 15,000 titles were available. Today you have 100,000 CDs. The number of titles has multiplied by eight or 10 in 25 years. This is just ridiculous.” San Francisco Chronicle 07/15/02
• DEAD AIR: Classical music radio is disappearing. “And the trend only seems to be getting worse. A recent Arbitron survey found that 34 of the nation’s top 100 radio markets didn’t have a classical station.” San Francisco Chronicle 07/15/02

WHAT IS LOST: The English National Opera is foolish to let Nicholas Payne, its general director, get away. “Over the past four years, the house has been producing risk-taking, energetic theatre; the place has had blood pumping through its veins. Payne may not have done a perfect job, but it is hard to think of anyone who could do it better – even split down the middle into separate artistic and managerial roles, as is now being proposed.” The Guardian (UK) 07/15/02

• Previously: AN OLD STORY: “Surprise, surprise, another national theatre chief has resigned. It happened five times in as many years at Covent Garden before they got rid of the builders. It happened a couple of months ago at the Royal Shakespeare Company where building worries did for Adrian Noble. Now it has befallen English National Opera, where Nicholas Payne, one of the cleverest opera administrators, cracked yesterday under the burden of bricks and mortar.” London Evening Standard 07/12/02

Sunday July 14

PAYNE-FUL SEPARATION: Nicholas Payne is out as general director of the English National Opera, following a disastrous year of controversy, massive renovation, and slumping ticket sales. The resignation, which came late Thursday night, was a surprise, although rumor has it that Payne had been clashing badly with the company’s chairman. The Independent (UK) 07/12/02

• BAD YEAR AT THE ENO: “The company, which received £13m in public funds last year, is battling to redress its deficit with a two year plan to save £700,000, as well as fielding criticism over risky productions while overseeing a £41m restoration of its Edwardian home, the London Coliseum. It has been said by some to be taking ‘a slow skid on a long banana skin’, with box office figures down slightly on last season.” The Guardian (UK) 07/13/02
• REBEL SPIRIT, WITH TOO LITTLE COMMON SENSE: “Worries over a deficit and a multimillion-pound restoration have overshadowed the achievements of a man who attracted young audiences, while occasionally failing to exercise enough judgement about some productions. The statement released last night by the ENO is a depressing one. It said the company had appointed an acting managing director ‘responsible for the overall management of ENO as a business’. Those of us who have had many a memorable evening at the ENO in the past decade or two were not aware we were visiting a business.” The Independent (UK) 07/12/02

BATTLING OVER LA SCALA: The world’s most famous opera house – La Scala, in Milan – closed in January for a 3-year renovation which will allow the company to present more operas more often, as well as upgrading substandard rehearsal spaces and backstage areas. But not everyone is happy with the restoration, and a local architect has filed a petition to stop the work, claiming that the company is detroying a beloved historic landmark. BBC 07/12/02

TRIBUTE AT TANGLEWOOD: The Boston Symphony Orchestra paid tribute this weekend to the man who has been its leader for the past three decades, and the celebration, while a bit over the top at times, was apparently a hit with the crowds gathered at the orchestra’s famous Tanglewood summer home in western Massachusetts. During the concert, it was announced that Ozawa had been named music director laureate of the BSO, after much apparent behind-the-scenes discussion and debate. Boston Herald 07/14/02

STORM CLOUDS GATHERING: Orchestras around the U.S. and Canada are continuing to struggle with rising deficits and slumping ticket sales. But while orchestras in Chicago, Minneapolis, and the like can count on hefty endowments and high-profile public support to assist them, North America’s small, regional ensembles are increasingly finding themselves on the edge of complete fiscal insolvency. The latest examples are in Jacksonville, Florida, which is cutting staff; and Shreveport, Louisiana, where the local orchestra has barely avoided a shutdown. The Business Journal (Jacksonville) 07/10/02 & Shreveport Times 07/11/02

THINK OF THE CHILDREN: Today’s society tends to take a dim view of child prodigies, assuming that children who excel at figure skating, tennis, or music are being unfairly pushed by greedy parents unable to control their insatiable desire for a superstar in the family. But where does that leave parents with a daughter who genuinely loves her violin so much that she can think of nothing else? Gwendolyn Freed meets a family walking that very tightrope, and doing so without any apparent ruination of anyone’s right to a happy childhood. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 07/14/02

A GROUNDBREAKER LOOKS BACK: James DePriest faced more than the average number of roadblocks to becoming a successful conductor. He has polio, and must walk with braces and canes. He has kidney disease, and required a transplant last year. And he is black, which is still a shockingly rare thing to be in the world of classical music. Nonetheless, DePriest has achieved great success on the podium, and is preparing to step down as music director of the Oregon Symphony after nearly a quarter century. Andante (AP) 07/14/02

Friday July 12

AN OLD STORY: “Surprise, surprise, another national theatre chief has resigned. It happened five times in as many years at Covent Garden before they got rid of the builders. It happened a couple of months ago at the Royal Shakespeare Company where building worries did for Adrian Noble. Now it has befallen English National Opera, where Nicholas Payne, one of the cleverest opera administrators, cracked yesterday under the burden of bricks and mortar.” London Evening Standard 07/12/02

SUPERSTAR STOPGAP: Itzhak Perlman has agreed to join the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra as ‘artistic advisor’ for the next two seasons, as the orchestra continues its search for a music director to replace Hans Vonk, who was forced to resign the position for health reasons. The SLSO has had a rough year, what with Vonk’s departure, several months of speculation that the orchestra was near bankruptcy, and a difficults reworking of the musicians’ contract. The Perlman appointment will not only give the SLSO a high-profile name with which to attract musicians and audiences, it will buy them the time they need for a careful and complete music director search. Saint Louis Post-Dispatch 07/12/02

FACE TIME WITH AN ORCHESTRA: Young composers need to know how to work with an orchestra so they can understand and explain exactly what they want. Young conductors need face time with orchestras. The New Jersey Composition and Conducting Institute is a new program run by the New Jersey Symphony to give composers and conductors opportunities to work with one another and with a professional orchestra. The New York Times 07/12/02

THRIVING BY BEING SMALL: Okay, so the major recording labels have abandoned classical music and “the future is bleak, but the past survives gloriously. Small labels have stepped up to fill the void – Now ‘only the smaller labels – ECM, Nonesuch, Bridge, New Albion – operate as if such caring were still possible; I note with pleasure that none of those labels include in their catalogs such redundancies as yet another Beethoven Nine.” LAWeekly 07/11/02

HARD TIMES IN RIO: “Rio de Janeiro’s most important opera and classical music venue, the Theatro Municipal, has scaled back its plans for the current season, after the new state government cut its R$27 million (US$9.5 million) budget in half. The cuts are part of the state’s plan to pay down its debt and reduce expenditures… Musicians and staff at the Municipal were angered by the cuts, saying that the government had reneged on a promise not to alter the current season. Artistic director Luiz Fernando Malheiro resigned in protest.” Andante 07/12/02

THE BAD OLD DAYS? Composer/critic Greg Sandow wrestles with the historical context of atonal music. “What was atonal music about? Most important, what should it mean to us today, now that we’re partly free of it? As I’ve been saying, here and elsewhere for quite a while, it badly needs a reassessment. We still have (just to cite one obvious example) James Levine, conscientiously conducting Schoenberg at the Met, convinced that Moses und Aron is a classic that the whole world needs to hear. I’m not going to say it isn’t one (that’s another conversation), but what’s odd is the all but explicit subtext, that Schoenberg still is music of our time.” NewMusicBox.com 07/02

Thursday July 11

TOUR TO GLORY: Washington Opera is working hard to upgrade its status. So the company is embarking on its first big-league tour. “The Washington Opera’s tour in Japan – the company’s first full-scale overseas tour (it took productions without chorus or orchestra to Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1984 and Israel in 1985) – is its bid to join the ranks of those companies. This is the chance to travel in the leagues of New York’s Metropolitan, or at least the San Francisco or Chicago operas.” Washington Post 07/09/02

JESSYE’S ROUGH NIGHT: Sopranos can rarely sing at a high level up to their 60th birthday. Jessye Norman is 56, and her first recital at Tanglewood in years was a disaster this week. Clearly not in good voice, she cut short her program, then “mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry’ as she swept from the stage after singing excerpts from Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’ete.” Boston Globe 07/11/02

Wednesday July 10

MAINLY MONTREAL: The Montreal Jazz Festival is eclectic independent-minded. “Twenty-three years old and one of the biggest and most respected festivals of its kind, it attracted some 1.65 million people to some 500 free and paid concerts over two weeks. But unlike the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, it did not necessarily celebrate a regional culture.” The New York Times 09/10/02

HAITINK LEAVES ROYAL OPERA: This week Bernard Haitink steps down as director of London’s Royal Opera, after 15 years. “As the press and public look back at his regime, two cliches recur. One is that Haitink ranks among the greatest of modern conductors, and that he has maintained the House’s musical standards at a world-beating level. This is absolutely true. The other is that he has not been enough of a leader, proving ‘unpolitical’ in his outlook and remaining ‘detached’from an institution which, over the redevelopment crisis in 1997-98, badly needed his muscle and influence. This is quite untrue.” The Telegraph (UK) 07/10/02

HEIR APPARENT? If Pavarotti is getting out of the game, who is heir to the tenor throne? Some critics are ready to award the title of successor to 33-year-old Italian Salvatore Licitra, who replaced Pavarotti on short notice at the Met for what was billed as the older tenor’s final performance there. But “Italian critics are somewhat uneasy about the wave of publicity that followed Licitra’s Met debut. They fear that euphoria will outweigh considered observation of the singer’s merits.” Washington Post 07/10/02

STRIKE OUT: Outgoing Boston Symphony conductor Seiji Ozawa is a big baseball fan. So when the orchestra was planning his farewell, Ozawa suggested a final concert at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Sure, said the orchestra, and quickly negotiated a date with the ballclub. But then the numbers came in – it would cost “at least $500,000 to build staging, a sound system, and other support for the show.” So the plans were abandoned. Boston Globe 07/10/02

JACKO’S CRUSADE: Michael Jackson’s tirade against the recording industry for being unfair to artists, particularly black artists, seems a stretch, given the mega-bucks he’s made in his career. Last weekend he said that “the recording companies really, really do conspire against the artists. They steal, they cheat, they do everything they can, [especially] against the black artists.” But Jackson has been locked in a dispute with his recording label, and his career hasn’t been going well… Philadelphia Inquirer 07/10/02

Tuesday July 9

CHICAGO SYMPHONY’S LONG-OVERDUE HIRE: The Chicago Symphony has just hired its first-ever African American musician. “Tage Larsen, second trumpet for the St. Louis Symphony since 2000, joined the CSO as fourth utility trumpet, effective July 1.” Chicago Sun-Times 07/09/02

• AND ON ANOTHER FRONT… “Marin Alsop will become only the second woman to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia when she makes her CSO podium debut there Friday in an all-Russian program, with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg as violin soloist. Indeed, there have been only a few women conductors of the CSO at Orchestra Hall.” Chicago Tribune 07/09/02

FOR STRUGGLING GERMANS – SUMMER IN SPAIN: Berlin may be struggling to finance its rich cultural treasures, including three opera companies. But one of those treasures – the Berlin Staatsoper – isn’t sitting around waiting for who knows what. The company and music director Daniel Barenboim have moved for the summer to Madrid, where the city is happy to have the 27 soloists, 135 orchestral players, a chorus of 90 and assorted technical staff, not to mention 25 tonnes of sets and costumes. “It is plain that he and the Staatsoper are very popular in the Spanish capital. Local audiences follow the company’s fortunes and the development of the singers as if they were their own.” The Times (UK) 07/09/02

NOSTALGIA DRIVE: What qualifies as a “golden oldie”? “For better and worse, radio is the closest thing the museum of pop has to a curator. The version of the past we hear on the airwaves is heavily filtered, strained through a series of agendas on its way to the transmitter. It is, in short, deeply and undeniably revision ist. For various reasons, there is a chasm between cultural perception and reality, between what radio tells us we bought and what we actually did buy.” The Age (Melbourne) 07/09/02

PRICE POINT: Though album sales were down modestly last year, there were some bright spots. Where? In lower-priced CDs. They sold very well. “A lot of labels are coming to terms with the fact album prices have gotten too high and that we’re competing with video games, CD burning and the Internet now. So pricing is a big factor.” Washington Times (Copley) 07/08/02

NEXT ON SPRINGER: Really – if you think about it, Jerry Springer isn’t far off the mark as grist for an opera. “Its subject matter may be wackier than classical opera, its language stronger, but the basic themes are all there.” Operas have often used seamy everyday stories for their stories. “When you look at Titus Andronicus, the last scene of that when they are all intermarried and tearing each other apart, it really looks like a final scene of the Jerry Springer show.” Glasgow Herald 07/09/02

Monday July 8

OUTDATED TRADITION? It’s coming up on Proms season again in London, and once again controversy over the nationalistic traditional Last Night program has flared up. The BBC televises the even worldwide to millions. “Should it allow the Last Night bunfight to continue, with its emphasis on party-hats and imperialist-era songs? Or should it take a lead from last year’s sombre event, four days after September 11, and jettison rituals that many regard as out of tune with modern, multicultural Britain?” Financial Times 07/08/02

• PERSONAL TOLL: Proms conductor Leonard Slatkin is caught in the controversy. “With his second Proms season starting in just under a fortnight, Slatkin finds himself caught up in a fierce debate about musical tradition and national identity that has left him feeling wounded and misunderstood and, at the same time, chastened and contrite. There is a sense in which this dapper, genial, 57-year-old American has stumbled into territory that is puzzling, alien and littered with traps.” The Independent (UK) 07/07/02

ROOTBOUND BY HISTORY? The jazz industry continues to churn out recordings. But “is it possible to be surrounded by too much history? That near-sacrilegious thought is prompted by the unstinting wave of tribute concerts and CDs that has flooded the market in recent years. Barely a month goes by without Billie Holiday or Thelonious Monk being honoured by singers and instrumentalists on both sides of the Atlantic.” The Times (UK) 07/08/02

MICHAEL JACKSON VS PRODUCERS: Michael Jackson has joined the list of pop artists charging that recording companies take advantage of musicians. But he adds a racial element to the complaints. “The record companies really do conspire against the artists. Especially the black artists.” Los Angeles Times 07/07/02

Sunday July 7

SEIJI AT LENOX: No other orchestra in the U.S. has a summer festival that even comes close to the prestige of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home at Tanglewood. Arguably a more beloved institution than even the BSO’s glorious Symphony Hall in Boston, Tanglewood has long been a jewel in America’s cultural crown. And as Seiji Ozawa wraps up his tenure as head man at the BSO, even the critics who so often clucked at his performances in Boston admit that he has done more for Tanglewood than any BSO conductor since Koussevitsky. Boston Globe 07/07/02

• BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN? Tanglewood is as much orchestral academy as musical showpiece, and it was as head of the center’s summer school for young musicians and conductors that Seiji Ozawa found himself unable to get any respect. “If he wasn’t present, or taking an active role in the school, he was the absentee landlord who didn’t give a damn. If he was present, and throwing his weight around, he was meddling.” Boston Globe 07/07/02

THE IMPERFECT MOZART: No composer is so enshrined as a monument to musical perfection as Mozart. And yet, in reality, few artists have embodied such a struggle between sniggering immaturity and highly developed genius as the beloved Wolfgang. In fact, Mozart’s image has undergone multiple revisions over the centuries, with musicians and scholars portraying him as everything from a flawed and vulgar prodigy to a godlike purveyor of truth and beauty. The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. The Observer (UK) 07/07/02

DON’T FORGET EGO STROKER AND PEACEMAKER: “Wanted: Conductor-music director for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Must be outstanding musician, inspiring leader, charismatic educator, willing fundraiser and committed community activist. Godhood an asset. And you wonder why it is taking so long for the orchestra’s search committee to fill the patent leather shoes vacated last June by Jukka-Pekka Saraste?” Toronto Star 07/06/02

OURS IS NOT TO REASON WHY: When Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music director Mariss Jansons announced this past spring that he would be leaving the Steel City in 2004, it caught the entire music world by surprise. Worse, it will be difficult for the PSO to find a replacement, as so many orchestras have recently plundered the ranks of high-profile conductors for their own open music director positions. But the unanswered question still lingers in Pittsburgh: why did Jansons quit? And why isn’t he talking about it? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 07/04/02

MERGER MANIA COMES TO UTAH: The respective boards of the Utah Symphony and the Utah Opera will vote this week on a proposal to merge the two organizations, amid much controversy about what effect the merger will have on the direction of the Salt Lake City arts community. It’s not helping that the boards appear to have created a supposedly objective analysis of the merger which was in fact intentionally slanted in favor of the move, shortly after an independent ombudsman blasted the idea. Salt Lake Deseret News 07/07/02

MONTREAL STOPGAP: When music director Charles Dutoit resigned (or was forced out) in Montreal, it left the symphony in a bit of a bind, schedule-wise, next year’s concerts having already been dedicated to celebrating Dutoit’s quarter century with the orchestra. The revised season was announced this week, with French Canadian conductor Jacques Lacombe stepping in as principal guest conductor while the search for a new music director continues. Montreal Gazette 07/05/02

UM, WHAT WAS THAT AGAIN? Soprano Renee Fleming once described opera as “hollering in an extremely cultivated manner.” That may be so, but many of today’s most cultivated hollerers seem to need a lesson in diction. Opera is storytelling, after all, so it seems odd that words are so often buried under mountains of musical extravagance. The Guardian (UK) 07/06/02

WHERE ARE THE SUPERSTARS? When John Entwhistle died last week, the press fell all over itself to eulogize The Who’s old bass player, even though the band has been more or less irrelevant since the late 1970s. It’s a pretty fair bet that a bass player in one of today’s top bands would not have garnered the same type of posthumous stroking, which begs the question: Is the press a bunch of self-absorbed, stuck-in-the-past Baby Boomers with no sense of perspective, or are today’s bands just not worthy of the attention paid to superstar musicians of the past? Chicago Tribune 07/05/02

TROUBLE IN SYDNEY? First, music director Edo deWaart announced that he would be significantly scaling back his duties as music director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Now, the SSO has placed an ad in the city’s leading newspaper announcing the creation of several new non-musician positions within the organization, and the probable elimination of others. Is Australia’s best-known orchestra getting ready to clean house? Andante (Sydney Morning Herald) 07/06/02

RUBINSTEIN COLLECTION SELLS: “The vast art and music collection of pianist Artur Rubinstein fetched almost €800,000 at auction, French auction group Poulain-Le Fur said Thursday. The French auctioneers managed to sell off almost all of the pianist’s collection, taking in a total of €793,580 ($776,606)… Russian [cellist Mstislav] Rostropovitch attended the auction, shelling out €7,000 for a letter from the collection signed by master composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky.” Andante (Agence France-Presse) 07/05/02

Friday July 5

WHERE ARE THE BLACK MUSICIANS? “Since his breakthrough as a teenage pianist 40 years ago, the virtuoso Andre Watts has, until recently, been the only high-profile African-American performer in the traditionally white world of highbrow music. Now, however, classical concerts are beginning to show more racial diversity.” Christian Science Monitor 07/05/02

YOUNG JAZZ REVIVAL: Is jazz dying? Audiences might be small, but “these days, both the artists in the world of jazz and the audiences that listen to them are getting younger. Artists such as Jane Monheit, Norah Jones, and Peter Cincotti are refreshing and reshaping the world of jazz – in some cases with original material, sometimes by incorporating pop in their repertoire, and sometimes by hewing steadfastly to tradition.” Christian Science Monitor 07/05/02

ART OF SOUND: Not really music, sound art is finding more practitioners. “The term ‘audio art’ encompasses work ranging from high-end audio documentaries to sophisticated electro-acoustic compositions that may also involve live performers. Often based on sounds the composer records in nature then processes digitally, the audio art movement has strong ties to environmentalism.” National Post 07/05/02

OPERA CONFAB: Representatives from opera companies from 12 Eureopean countries met in Vienna last month to talk about the state of the business. The number one issue? No surprise – money. Andante 07/04/02

WHAT MEANS TOSCANINI: “A half-century after his last concert, Arturo Toscanini remains an enduring symbol of classical music in the 20th century. Yet, beyond a general agreement that he played a key role in raising standards of orchestral performance, there is still no consensus on his historical significance. Indeed, many critics continue to regard his influence as chiefly negative.” Commentary 07/02

LEAST FAVORITE INSTRUMENT: In a survey, children rank the recorder as their least favorite instrument. “The wind instrument was the least favourite of musical instruments in a survey of 1,209 pupils carried out by Susan O’Neill of Keele University, even though it was the one played by the largest number.” The Guardian (UK) 07/04/02

Thursday July 4

HOW TO MAKE FANS: The Buffalo Philharmonic is having money problems. But the orchestra’s board chairman doesn’t blame the orchestra – it’s the business community and individuals who won’t open their wallets. “I am extremely frustrated by the lack of appreciation for the great asset that the BPO is. All I hear about is what happened 20 years ago, 15 years ago, 5 years ago. People don’t talk about the Bills when they were 2-14. Why are they still complaining about the the way the Philharmonic used to be run? Purely and simply, this community isn’t protecting its best asset. The passion is lacking.” Buffalo News 07/04/02

SUING YOUR BIGGEST FANS: Recording company execs said last week they would begin suing the most active music file traders. Previously they had avoided going after individuals. “The problem is that it’s bad business to sue the people who most want your product. That has been a lesson hard learned for music industry executives, many who believed they could control the Internet the way they controlled traditional sales outlets.” Wired 07/03/02

FALL OF THE GREAT TCHAIKOVSKY: “The main significance of the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition was its staggering loss of significance. This was, remember, an event that used to be a key Cold War indicator, measuring Kremlin tolerance of western winners and Russian losers. Winning the Tchaikovsky will mean little more to this year’s crop than a medal on the mantelpiece and a dollar cheque – 30 grand for gold, 20 for silver. Privacy is no bad thing for the victors, who will lead much happier lives; but for a stressed-out music industry that relies on international competitions for identifying marketable talent, the Tchaikovsky’s loss of impact is cause for near-panic.” London Evening Standard 07/03/02

Wednesday July 3

MAJORITY OF ORCHESTRA MUSICIANS PLAY HURT: An expert in stress injuries who has studied orchestra musicians, says that “in any orchestra performing on stage, 60 per cent (of people) will be carrying some injury. Common injuries include muscle strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, thumb strain, tendonitis and shoulder injuries.” Adelaide Advertiser 07/02/02

LACKING VISION IN TORONTO? The design for Toronto’s new opera house is in, and musicians ought to love it. With the spectre of the acoustically miserable Roy Thompson Hall hanging over the city’s music scene, architect Jack Diamond has taken great pains to insure a quality sound mix inside the new facility. But architecture critics claim that Diamond has sacrificed form to function, presenting a design that may be musically compelling, but lacks architectural focus. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/03/02

JUST THE WAY WE LIKE IT: In an age when many equate getting bigger with getting better, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis is a throwback. Its theatre is small, its programs modest and its ambitions reasonable. And that’s just the way audiences seem to like it. Financial Times 07/03/02

WHERE TO END? Now that Pavarotti has named the date of his final concert, speculation is building about where and in what form the final performance will take place. New Zealand Herald (Independent) 07/03/02

TUNEFUL VICTORY: A violinist pulled out his instrument to play a disputed tune in British court this week. He was claiming joint copyright rights for a 1984 Bananarama song he said he had helped compose. The performance pleased the judge – the musician’s claim was awarded. BBC 07/02/02

RAY BROWN, 75: One of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century has died. Bassist Ray Brown revolutionized his instrument’s role in jazz, and was one of the creators of bebop. He played with nearly every legend of the genre and was a founding member of the Oscar Peterson Trio. He was still performing at the age of 75, and was finishing up a U.S. tour at the time of his death yesterday. Nando Times (AP) 07/03/02

Tuesday July 2

SMOKE GETS IN THEIR EYES: Glyndebourne was proud of its coup – signing British American Tobacco to sponsor a production of Carmen. “In an inspired piece of marketing, the tobacco giant is sponsoring the story of the heroine who labours in a cigarette factory, hoping to endear itself to the champagne-quaffing classes.” But now politicians, anti-smoking campaigners and artists are attacking, especially because of a performance scheduled to be broadcast over BBC. The Guardian (UK) 07/01/02

HIGH TIDES RAISE TUNES: A “High Tide Organ” is being installed on the waterfront in Blackpool England. Powered by natural forces, “the organ will offer a concert-like performance. With a few short peeps heralding the high tide, the sea will lead up to the main show with a few intermittent notes and chords. At the point of high tide, the organ will gloriously strum out a rhythmic crescendo whose effect is supposed to be similar to an aeolian harp. Vulnerable to mood swings just like other artists, performances are expected to be wild and frenzied on stormy days and softly mellifluous on calmer ones.” Wired 07/01/02

• SOUND OF WATER: A water organ built in the 16th Century at the Villa d’Este in Italy was smashed in the 18th Century because villagers disliked its sound. Now it’s being restored. “The organ works on a principle of creating air pressure with the suction of water plunging down a pipe. The water organ was one of the marvels of the Renaissance, but when it fell into disrepair, the skills necessary to maintain it had been lost.” BBC 06/30/02

HOT NUMBER: Soprano Susan Chilcott was singing in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen Of Spades at London’s Royal Opera House when “a candle set fire to the train of her dress. Members of the audience shouted at her but Chilcott carried on with her aria, unaware of the danger. A member of staff and a fire officer then ran on stage and put out the blaze with a water extinguisher.” BBC 07/02/02

Monday July 1

NEW (LEGAL) PAY-TO-PLAY: Rather than developing easy legal ways for consumers to get music over the internet, music labels have concentrated on trying to sue the free services out of business. Didn’t work. So now several of the companies are launching internet sales. “We could be 100 percent correct morally and legally that it is wrong to trade copyrighted files, but from a business standpoint it doesn’t matter. We need to construct legal alternatives.” The New York Times 07/01/02

THE KING OF MARKETING: Elvis is at the top of the charts all over the world right now. Why? “In part, it has a lot to do with the approach being adopted by the executors of Presley’s estate and a new marketing strategy by RCA Records. The single is the first song Presley’s estate has officially allowed to be remixed. Still, the idea of pre-teens warming to a singer who, were he alive, would be old enough to be their great-grandfather is kind of scary.” The Age (Melbourne) 07/01/02

MUSIC COLLEGE FACULTY MEMBERS QUIT IN PROTEST: Two of Britain’s leading musicians, faculty members of the Royal Northern College of Music, “have walked out in disgust after the appointment to the staff of a man revealed to have previously had sex with several of his pupils.” The Observer (UK) 06/30/02

Sunday June 30

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID. OR MUST IT? With classical music increasingly marginalized by a music industry hellbent on profit and promotion, proponents are forced to hope against hope that a snippet of Brahms, Schubert, or Strauss imbedded in a commercial or a movie might catch the interest of some listeners, and lead them into the quickly dwindling fraternity of dinosaurs who still enjoy the stuff. But is such grasping at straws anything approaching a good idea, or does such cavalier excerpting serve to further diminish an already battered art form? The New York Times 06/30/02

BUILDING A BETTER CONDUCTOR: Leonard Slatkin’s third annual National Conducting Institute winds up this weekend. “The NCI is distinguished from other conducting workshops by its comprehensive approach to training in all aspects of music directorship,” including artist management, rehearsal tactics, and how to deal with rich donors, in addition to the traditional stick-waving demands. Andante 06/29/02

• LOOKING PAST TOKENISM: What is it about the supposedly liberal music world that makes it totally unable to get past its aversion to female conductors? Sure, there are a few moderately well-known women on the podium these days, but no major American orchestra has ever hired a woman as music director, or, reportedly, even had one on its short list. Some claim that its a coincidence, but music insiders will tell you that there is no shortage of lingering misogyny among the management of America’s professional orchestras. Philadelphia Inquirer 06/30/02

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM… “In a move that contrasts with the hard stance in the United States, Australian music industry officials are gauging a plan to endorse CD-copying vending machines… An Australian maker of CD burners asked the Australian Record Industry Association and the Australian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society to let the machines be operated in public places in return for a small royalty fee for every CD copied.” Wired (AP) 06/28/02

RECORD LABELS GUILTY OF PRICE FIXING: A Washington, D.C. judge has found Universal Music Group and Warner Communications guilty of price-fixing in a scandal involving several recordings of the Three Tenors. The ruling was not a big surprise, seeing as Warner had already reached a settlement with trade regulators. Universal, which is appealing the ruling, is mounting a defense predicated on the idea that it only fixed prices a little bit, and that the whole thing just wasn’t any big deal. Andante (AP) 06/29/02

NEWS FLASH – BABIES HAVE EARS AND BRAINS: In a finding that will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever raised a bilingual child or taught Suzuki piano to a 4-year-old, a Canadian research team has announced that babies and young children are excellent listeners. In addition the “researchers say babies can remember complex classical music, even after a two week delay.” CNN 06/27/02

BUSKING FOR FUN AND PROFIT: In most American cities these days, street musicians are run off by police, yelled at by pedestrians, and derided as a blight on civic beauty by politicians who have somehow equated generic boredom with safety and urban attractiveness. In Canada, they hold festivals for their buskers, and “busking has evolved into a much more creative art form, and includes dancers, jugglers and comedians. In fact, some buskers are classically trained performers.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/29/02

ROSEMARY CLOONEY, 74: “Rosemary Clooney, whose warm, radiant voice placed her in the first rank of American popular singers for more than half a century, died last night at her home in Beverly Hills. She was 74. The cause was complications from lung cancer.” The New York Times 06/30/02

NOBODY LIKES A KNOW-IT-ALL: The winner of this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is the definition of an overachiever. He’s a professor at MIT, a yo-yo champ, the creator of the first digital library, and, according to a colleague, “the last person to know everything.” One of the Van Cliburn judges probably summed him up best: “People like that are so annoying.” Boston Globe 06/30/02

Friday June 28

WITH SECONDS TO SPARE: The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has done it. Under the leadership of former Ontario premier Bob Rae, the financially beleagured TSO has succeeded in raising the $1 million necessary to activate a second $1 million in matching money offered up by Heritage Canada. The influx of cash means that the orchestra is near to reaching financial stability less than a year after fiscal problems nearly caused its shutdown. Toronto Star 06/28/02

STORYBOOK MUSIC: Does it matter what politics or lifestyle a composer had? “Like literature and the visual arts in the previous century, classical music has come under the harsh gaze of a new breed of cultural critic, whose investigations range far beyond counterpoint and sonata form. We now regularly interrogate music for its association with society’s deepest, darkest and often unexamined values.” Andante 06/27/02

ANOTHER INSTRUMENTAL NIGHTMARE: “The Australia Council wants to sell a valuable 18th-century Italian cello, currently on loan to young musician Liwei Qin…a move that will effectively end the council’s vision for a national instrument collection. Insurance premiums and maintenance costs have been cited as reasons for abandoning the collection but this has highlighted another problem. There is no Australian organisation that can arrange the loan of high-performance instruments to needy musicians.” Andante (Sydney Morning Herald) 06/28/02

Thursday June 27

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COMPOSERS? We have celebrity architects, celebrity artists, authors and playwrights. But where are the composers? “For one reason or other, composers in this celebrity era have fallen off the face of the globe. While paint splashers live like kings and Sunday scribblers walk out with film stars on their arms, men and (increasingly) women who spend arid days hunched over giant staves struggling to resolve a stubborn chord are no longer part of the cultured person’s conversational portfolio.” London Evening Standard 06/26/02

BYE-BYE TO THE 3T: The Three Tenors – that mega-selling phenom of the arena concert world, will come to an end with a concert at this week’s World Cup. 3T began with a performance at the World Cup 12 years ago and has been one of the great cash franchises in the history of tenordom. The announcement comes a day after Pavarottis announced he’ll retire on his 70th birthday in 2005 (leaving plenty of time for what are likely to be innumerable lucrative “farewell” tours). BBC 06/27/02

REHABILITATING TCHAIKOVSKY: There was a time when Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition was the most prestigious in the world. But during the 90s the competition declined in quality and prestige. This year’s effort, while not generating any breakout performers, made some steps towards regaining some of its former standing. Andante 06/27/02

SOCCER MOMS GOT NOTHING ON THESE FOLKS: Time was when the world of classical music ate children alive, when kids thrown into the lion’s den of hypercompetitive parents, overbearing teachers, and endless peer pressure would emerge out the other end of the experience battered, bruised, and burned out. These days, kids are actually allowed to enjoy themselves while learning to play their instruments, the experience is more about the process than the end result, and parents are expected to be as closely involved as any parent of a potential Wimbledon champion. The New York Times 06/27/02

WANTED – $50 MILLION (CANADIAN): Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music would like to begin a CAN$50 million expansion in a few years. So it’s somewhat in need of $50 million, and may be a bit unsure of where to find it. The RCM has never had to conduct a major capital campaign before, and it has now put out an open call for a lead donor. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/27/02

OF FAMILY AND MUSIC: It’s difficult to balance family and career in most professions, and music is no exception. “In 2002, it’s no longer a shock to see kids at the opera house. While there have been no comprehensive surveys about women musicians and parenting, anecdotal evidence indicates that more women are juggling thriving careers and motherhood — and succeeding at what seemed nearly impossible a generation or two ago.” Andante 06/27/02

Wednesday June 26

WORST-KEPT SECRET: Less than two months after skipping out on his Metropolitan Opera finale, Luciano Pavarotti has announced his retirement from the stage. Speaking with CNN’s Connie Chung, Pavarotti struck back at critics who suggested that illness was not the reason for his Met cancellation, and set an end date, (his 70th birthday in 2005,) for his long career as the world’s most famous tenor. CNN 06/25/02

BOTH SIDES OF THE GLASS: Philip Glass’s latest opera has debuted in Chicago, and will have its New York premiere this fall. So how is it? Well, if you ask the theater critic, it’s “an initially static but finally moving 93-minute ode to one man’s curiosity.” Ask the music critic, and he’ll tell you that “Galileo Galilei is another of those contemporary operas where you come out of the theater whistling the decor and staging because the music is so forgettable.” Chicago Tribune 06/26/02

ORIGINAL SILENCE: British composer Mike Batt included a blank one-minute track on a recent CD and listed it as a one-minute silent piece. He playfully attributed it to Cage/Batt, his lighthearted tribute to the late John Cage. The group that collects copyright royalties duly billed Batt for rights to the Cage contribution. Says a rueful Batt: “My silence is original silence, not a quotation from his silence.” Andante 06/25/02

OREGON SYMPHONY’S NEW DIRECTOR: After a three year search the Oregon Symphony has chosen Carlos Kalmar as music director, succeeding James DePriest. Kalmar has been director of the Grant Park Festival orchestra in Chicago since 2000. The Oregonian 06/25/02

Tuesday June 25

PULLING THE PLUG ON ONLINE RADIO: Online music broadcasters are describing last week’s royalty fee decision by the Librarian of Congress as a knockout blow. “Online broadcasters will have to pay almost three years’ worth of back royalties in mid-October, coughing up about $260 per listener. For some Webcasters, the amount is so daunting that they said they’ll fold unless Congress intervenes or the labels and artists agree to a smaller payment.” Los Angeles Times 06/24/02

LET’S TRY SOMETHING ELSE: With recording companies declaring war on their consumers for music swapping and music fans angry at producers for high CD prices, maybe it’s time to take a breath and try something new. Critic Tom Moon suspects there are plenty of fans out there willing – even eager – to support the artists whose music they like. But a new business model has to evolve. “Where the present industry model discourages anything but the purchase of a full CD, the new, enlightened one would offer free online singles and EPs, loss-leaders that give fans the chance to make an informed purchase.” Philadelphia Inquirer 06/25/02

THE PATH MOST LONELY: Chicago composer Ralph Shapey, who died last week at the age of 81, was a loner. “Someday when I’m dead and buried, some musicologist will start comparing my music with that of other composers of my generation. He will say, `Shapey was ahead of everybody – Carter, Babbitt, all the rest. They are nothing but imitations of what he did all along.’ I wish I could come back to hear that, I really do.” Chicago Tribune 06/25/02

Monday June 24

FOR ATLANTA’S NEW SYMPHONY HALL… The Atlanta Symphony picks Santiago Calatrava to design its new $240 million concert hall. “If the orchestra’s pick is brave by Atlanta standards, it is also canny. Calatrava’s status and star quality ensure media attention, and his iconic, sculptural buildings are the kind that can galvanize a community.” That’ll be important – the orchestra still has to raise all that money… Atlanta Journal-Constitution 06/23/02

• ARCHITECTURAL CALLING CARD: “The most curious thing about the ASO’s decision came in the reaction. Unlike the other two architectural finalists, Calatrava seems immune to all criticism. Everyone capitulates before his interstellar eyeballs (City of Science Museum in Valencia, Spain) and his kinetic, retractable wings (Milwaukee Art Museum). One London critic has called Calatrava ‘the Mozart of modern bridge design’.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 06/23/02

Sunday June 23

TIMIDITY AT THE OPERA HOUSE: Opera is thriving in the U.S. these days, as the advent of supertitles and the reinvigoration of the notion that opera is just theatre with better music draw a new generation into the fold. Furthermore, the new popularity has led to a flurry of newly commissioned operas by big-name composers. But so much of the contemporary output seems to be lacking in a certain daring – are composers pandering to the crowd, afraid to challenge them too much, lest they alienate the public again? The New York Times 06/23/02

THE JOB NO ONE WANTED: When Gerard Schwarz announced last year that he was stepping down as conductor of the New York Chamber Orchestra that he founded a quarter-century ago, everyone agreed that he would be hard to replace. But no one expected what has now become reality: the NYCO, financially devastated and unable to find anyone to take on its music directorship, has cancelled its upcoming season, and is likely to fold completely. Andante 06/23/02

D.C. OPERA EXEC TO STEP DOWN: “Walter Arnheim, who has served as the executive director of the Washington Opera for the past 2 1/2 years, will retire on June 30, the end of the company’s fiscal year, it was announced late yesterday afternoon.” Arnheim declined to make a statement personally, and there is some speculation that the decision may not have been entirely his. Washington Post 06/22/02

TCHAIKOVSKY PRIZEWINNERS: The 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition wrapped up this weekend with Japanese pianist Ayako Uehara taking first prize in high-profile piano division. For the first time in the competition’s history, the judges did not award a first prize in the violin division. Andante (Kyodo News) 06/22/02

• GETTING PAST PERCEPTION: The Tchaikovsky Competition was the artistic pride of the Soviet Union, a chance to prove to the arrogant West that Russians were possessed of a proud and strong musical tradition. “But in the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the competition’s reputation declined, amid allegations of low standards, corruption and jury-rigging. This year, the Tchaikovsky Competition is trying to regain its former prominence by including international performers at the top of their fields among the judges.” Voice of America 06/23/02

LOOKING AHEAD AT RAVINIA: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s summer festival at Ravinia is one of the most successful of its kind, due in large part to its stellar lineup of conductors, soloists, and high-quality repertoire at a time of the year when many orchestras play nothing but pops and Strauss waltzes. But with Ravinia director Christoph Eschenbach expected to step down to concentrate on his music directorship in Philadelphia, speculation has begun about who should succeed him. And, for the first time in modern memory, most of the leading candidates seem to be talented young Americans. Chicago Tribune 06/23/02

HOW NOT TO RUN A SUMMER SEASON: Two years ago, just as many American orchestras were beginning to own up to massive debt and cut costs accordingly, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra was launching an ambitious new summer concert series and promising to broaden the orchestra’s appeal in its hometown of Birmingham. Two summers in, crowds have been disappointing and the series is hemorrhaging money. One local critic thinks she knows why. Birmingham News 06/21/02

CLAW YOUR WAY TO THE TOP: There are thousands of talented young musicians in the world, all striving to claim one of the precious few spots as a top international performer. No instrument is more competitive than the piano, as pianists, by and large, lack the option of an orchestral career, and the battle for attention can be fierce. So what does it take to get to the top of the heap? Three of the UK’s success stories have some thoughts. The Telegraph (UK) 06/22/02

GOTHAM PIPEDREAMS: “Neither of New York City’s biggest concert halls, Avery Fisher Hall or Carnegie Hall, has a symphonic pipe organ, but its churches keep building them. The latest is the Roman Catholic Church of St. Vincent Ferrer on the Upper East Side, where a huge truck recently brought nearly 4,000 pipes from the Schantz Organ Company in Orrville, Ohio, for a new organ in the gallery.” The St. Vincent organ is just the latest in a series of eclectic, original instruments making their mark on the city’s music scene. The New York Times 06/22/02

THE NEW TECHNO: Techno music was one of those movements that brought a modicum of elitism and intellectualism to the ordinarily low-brow world of pop, even as it spawned a subculture based on high-energy dance and heavy drug use. But, like so many movements before it, techno has been waning in recent years, as less-threatening elements of its blueprint were incorporated into mainstream pop. Now, a new techno-based act is gaining prominence in Europe, leading some to speculate that the genre’s future is in musical theatrics, with the music only one part of a giant sensory experience. Wired 06/22/02

Friday June 21

THE 6 MILLION PHENOM: After two years the soundtrack from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? “the Grammy-winning album of blues, mountain and other Americana music, has sold more than 6 million copies and is still hovering on Billboard’s chart of the Top 20 albums in the country.” This despite the almost total absence of playtime on commercial radio in the US. The album has been so successful, it’s spawned new recording labels hoping to promote this genre of music. Nando Times (AP) 06/20/02

ELECTRONIC WINS: For the past decade, the mainstream and electronic music industries have tried to turn electronic music into a pan-cultural worldwide phenomenon. Globally, this effort has been indisputably successful. Electronic music is pop music in Europe. Kids play with Roland Grooveboxes, not Stratocasters, and dream of being the next Paul Oakenfold, not the next Paul McCartney. But not in the States, even though house and techno were of course invented in Chicago and Detroit.” But electronic music has scored with the rave underground, where it flourishes. Salon 06/20/02

SEASONS OF OPERA: Toronto’s new opera house will be called the Four Seasons Opera House after the founder of the hotel chain donated $20 million for the $150 million project. Toronto Star 06/20/02

Thursday June 20

NOSTALGIA OR DECLINE? “Unfortunately, Elvis’s record-breaking 18th UK chart topper has led to an outbreak of what might be termed ‘They don’t make ’em like they used to’ syndrome. So, the question is, does pop music really keep getting worse? Or do our tastes just get stuck in a rut? I think the answer lies in the way we listen to music and in particular the level of intensity and concentration we bring to something that, I would guess, most adults consider a pleasurable diversion rather than the core of their very being.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/20/02

• Previously: ELVIS LIVES: Elvis has just scored his 18th No. 1 hit in the UK. A DJ funky remix of Elvis Presley’s A Little Less Conversation. How? Soccer. The song was used in a sports ad and has become Britain’s unofficial World Cup anthem. The Times (UK) 06/17/02

PLAYING FOR NO ONE? Where’s LA’s jazz scene? Actually there’s plenty of innovative playing going on. But it’s underground – in the schools and in small out-of-the-way venues. The bigger clubs are mainstream and few of the hot young players have much visibility. “The playing is brilliant. But no one, no one, seems to be creating music that is connecting to an audience out there.” Los Angeles Times 06/20/02

• FINDING THAT CERTAIN AUDIENCE: Even in St. Louis, which has a rich jazz tradition, keeping the music scene healthy is a matter of promotion. “Jazz is an improvisational art. And so is jazz marketing. Attracting crowds to clubs, concert halls and festivals requires much more than just booking talented artists and waiting for lines to form, promoters say. Staging a successful jazz event also is a matter of timing, budgeting and good, old-fashioned luck.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 06/16/02
  

HIP-HOP NOT JUMPING SO HIGH: “Sales of hip-hop albums in the first quarter of 2002 were down an eye-opening 26% from the same period last year, by far the largest drop among major pop genres, and longtime observers on the scene have been grumbling that innovation and star power are on the wane.” Los Angeles Times 06/19/02

OVER THE CLIFF: “Europe’s top orchestra and four of America’s Big Five are changing hands, the biggest baton handover in memory.” This kind of top-level turnover would be cause for concern in any industry, writes Norman Lebrecht. But the orchestras have botched it. “With conservatism in full cry, musical America is entering an epoch of dullness that one would hardly cross the road to experience, let alone the Atlantic. The slow decline of symphonic concerts has taken a sharp downturn with the shunning of the next generation. This sorry outcome could have been foretold, and has been.” London Evening Standard 06/19/02

Wednesday June 19

MUSICIANS – SMARTER THAN THE REST OF US? A new study says that musicians have larger brains than other people. “Medical scans found that instrumentalists and singers have 130 per cent more grey matter in a particular part of their brains compared with those who are unable to play a note.” But how do you explain Ozzy Osbourne? The Scotsman 06/18/02

DUMBING DOWN IN CHICAGO? You’ll excuse orchestra musicians if they’re a bit over-sensitive about the state of their profession. In the last decade, symphonies around the country have cut back on the amount of “serious” classical music they perform, and increased promotion of pops and “crossover” concerts in an effort to increase audience size. To this point, the so-called “Big Five” orchestras have dodged the trend, but now, Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians are grumbling that their trustees are exchanging musical integrity for quick-and-dirty fiscal fixes. Chicago Tribune 06/19/02

CLAWING BACK IN NYC: The economic impact of 9/11 on New York’s arts institutions was much wider-reaching than most people realize, and three of the city’s smaller orchestras very nearly went under as a result. But less than a year after the attacks decimated the Big Apple’s cultural landscape, things are looking up, and some are even beginning to speculate that the orchestras of Brooklyn, Long Island, and Queens will actually be better off than they were pre-9/11 when all is said and done. Newsday (New York) 06/18/02

BLAME THE TEACHERS? So many classical musicians sound the same – middle of the road and bland. Is it because of how they’re trained? “This sort of standardisation of education over the last hundred years has certainly raised the degree of professionalism. But standardisation has also become a danger. Is it any surprise that musicians tend to sound the same, look the same, and function as replaceable parts for orchestras, concert seasons and advertising? Is it a surprise that the individuality that might make for a remarkable moment of experience at a concert is missing?” Ludwigvanweb 06/02

SEARCHING FOR WERNICKE’S RING: “On 16 April, shockwaves resounded throughout the opera world with the news of the sudden death of German director and designer Herbert Wernicke after he collapsed on the streets of Basel, Switzerland… Wernicke’s loss was felt most keenly, perhaps, in Munich, where he was in the midst of that most formidable of tasks, a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle.” The city is going ahead with the cycle anyway, and billing it as a tribute to Wernicke, with the whole production based on his production notes. Andante 06/19/02

NEW OPERA HOUSE FOR OSLO: The Norwegian parliament has approved plans for a new opera house for the nation’s capital, after more than five years of political wrangling. The hall will be built in Oslo’s inner harbor, and will have a maximum price tag of US$416 million. Aftenposten (Oslo) 06/18/02

INTERLOCHEN AT 75: Aspen might be the largest American summer music school. But Interlochen, in Michigan is the oldest. This year the school is celebrating its 75th anniversary. “Founded in 1928 by music educator Joseph Maddy, Interlochen grew by fits and starts to become the largest and oldest institution of its kind in the world. ” It attracts 2,100 students from all 50 states and 41 countries, from Aruba to Uzbekistan. Traverse City Eagle-Record 06/17/02

Tuesday June 18

TELECONCERT: The band Korn has played a concert in New York that was transmitted live in “30 cities across the United States in a move that could open up a new way to watch bands. Some 6,000 people watched the group in 40 cinemas thanks to a satellite link and digital projectors, on top of the 3,000 who saw them in person at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom.” BBC 06/17/02

RATING PAY-PER-PLAY: This week the US Librarian of Congress will decide what royalty fees internet radio stations will pay to music producers. “Depending on how the rates are set, some insiders believe the announcement could put some Web broadcasters out of business.” Nando Times (CSM) 06/17/02

ORCHESTRAS LOOKING UP: Thirteen-hundred orchestra administrators met in Philadelphia last week to talk about the state of the business at the annual American Symphony Orchestra League meeting. Despite a few orchestras with financial problems, “the overall health of orchestras is so strong that they are in better shape now than they were one or two decades ago.” Andante 06/17/02

SINGLE-MINDED: “Singles have long been seen by the industry as the most important kind of sales tool, the trailer for the album.” But singles have fallen on hard times. Sales are down, and the format is dyng. “Ruthlessly segmented by marketing formats, the pop singles market has become far too complicated for anyone but the most committed of professionals to understand.” New Statesman 06/17/02

PLAYING INTO PAIN: Seventy-six percent of orchestra musicians surveyed report having sustained physical injuries in their careers serious enough to make them miss work. Minnesota Orchestra cellist Janet Horvath became concerned enough about the effects of job injuries that she’s written a book. “The problem has always been the stigma and the embarrassment: If you hurt yourself, you must be a bad player. That’s been the mindset. It’s taken 20 years of work for people to understand that most of the injuries we see are cumulative.” The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 06/18/02

E-COMPETITION WINNER: Mei-Ting Sun wins the International Piano E-Competition in Minneapolis. The compatition attracted attention because Yefim Bronfman, one of the judges, listened via remote hookup in Japan. “At first Mr. Bronfman found it disconcerting to listen to performances on a self-playing piano, he told officials of the competition. So he followed the musical scores of the Schubert works as he listened. But he increasingly took advantage of the video relay that was coordinated to the performance. ‘Watching the television screen helped to make it believable’.” The New York Times 06/18/02

RALPH SHAPEY, 81: Ralph Shapey, who died last weekend at the age of 81, was “perhaps America’s most relentlessly self-challenging composer, his catalogue having roughly 200 pieces for a huge range of ensembles. He also cared a great deal if people listened. In 1969, he went on strike as a composer, refusing to allow performances of his works until conditions for modern music improved. At one point, he even threatened to burn it all, which was possible since none of his music had been published and was all in manuscript.” The Guardian (UK) 06/17/02

Monday June 17

WORRIED ABOUT RADIO: Recording companies and artists are growing concerned about the growing monopolies of radio stations and their power to decide which songs get played. “In the next few weeks, United States lawmakers are expected to introduce legislation backed by both artists and recording companies who are suddenly joined against what they consider their newest enemy: the radio conglomerates whose practices, they contend, cost them millions of dollars each year.” The New York Times 06/17/02

USE ME/ABUSE ME: The recording industry is worried about sales of used CDs. “The industry worries that the expanding used market is cannibalizing new-CD sales, as well as promoting piracy by allowing consumers to buy, record and sell back discs while retaining their own digitally pristine copies. One proposed remedy being debated by record label executives is federal legislation requiring used-CD retailers to pay royalties on secondary sales of albums.” San Diego Union-Tribune 06/14/02

ARTISTS DEMAND BETTER DEAL: Recording artists are demanding better treatment from recording companies. “In recent weeks, several long-simmering lawsuits and legislative reforms seeking to change the way major labels handle artists’ contracts have come to a boil. The biggest player in this movement is the Recording Artists Coalition (RAC), led by Don Henley, which wants to shorten the length of deals and require labels to offer artists health benefits.” New York Daily News 06/17/02

THE ASPEN IDEA: The music festival at Aspen, Colorado was founded in 1960 with the idea that the arts would flourish in “the tranquil serenity of the great virgin outdoors. In the years since its inception, the Aspen Music Festival, which began as an adjunct of the institute, has grown exponentially from a cluster of small impromptu chamber performances to a meticulously planned nine-week extravaganza with more than 200 events, 100,000 annual visitors, five orchestras and a budget that tops $11 million a year.” Opera News 06/02

ELVIS LIVES: Elvis has just scored his 18th No. 1 hit in the UK. A DJ funky remix of Elvis Presley’s A Little Less Conversation. How? Soccer. The song was used in a sports ad and has become Britain’s unofficial World Cup anthem. The Times (UK) 06/17/02

Sunday June 16

MUSIC CONSUMERS SUE RECORD LABELS: A couple of music consumers are suing major recording companies for embedding copy-protection in CD’s. They want the court to “either to block the discs or require warning labels identifying them as inferior in quality and hazardous to computers. Copy-protected discs use a variety of electronic techniques to deter digital copying. Some can’t be played at all on computers and other devices with CD-ROM drives, while others try to confuse the drives so they can’t extract the disc’s data.” Los Angeles Times 06/16/02

MUSIC CRITICS WHO KNOW MUSIC? Northwestern University is launching a new degree for music critics. The course will include classes in music and journalism. Sounds like a simple idea, really, but it isn’t offered in many places. “We need a new paradigm for what a good journalist does. The old paradigm was that any good reporter can do a good job of covering any subject, regardless of how complicated it is. The new paradigm says: `Wouldn’t it be good if people really knew what they were writing about?'” Chicago Tribune 06/16/02

STICKING WITH CONVENTIONAL: The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is about music rather than careers. But music critic Scott Cantrell is disappointed that judges chose conventional performances to win rather than the performer with a more idiosyncratic approach. Dallas Morning News 06/16/02

• FOR THE LOVE OF IT: The Amateur competition reminds listeners that making music is a personal experience. “There was the sometime librarian who co-owned a café and a shoe repair shop and designed circus tents, the financial manager with a Harvard MBA and a black belt in karate, the television news anchor who took master classes with Sir Georg Solti and became third runner-up in the 1985 Miss America Pageant.” Toronto Star 06/16/02

100 YEARS OF STRING QUARTETS: A festival in Baltimore considers the evolution of the string quartet in the 20th Century. Festival organizers reviewed more than 400 works by nearly 80 composers. “The string quartet genre, which emerged somewhere around 1760 (roughly around the time the symphony genre began to develop), underwent dynamic developments after 1900. Composers felt free to use the idiom in an astonishing variety of ways, often departing substantially from quartet traditions.” Baltimore Sun 06/16/02

THE MOST-EXPENSIVE ORCHESTRA: The Philadelphia Orchestra, recently arrived in its new concert hall, has hiked ticket prices, making it the most expensive orchestra in America. The most expensive ticket will cost $130, plus a $2 building-use surcharge. The orchestra says the increase is unrelated to moving into the new hall. “The reasons for the higher prices: Orchestra board members and administrators are betting that the listening public can and will pay more, and the ensemble can use the extra revenue to pay down deficits.” Philadelphia Inquirer 06/12/02

Friday June 14

AX IN AN E-FLAP: There has been plenty of press on an international piano competition taking place this weekend in the Twin Cities, largely due to the participation of two famous judges, Yefim Bronfman and Emanuel Ax, who would be doing their judging from remote locations with the help of an internet-based recreation system. But when the New York Times reported yesterday that Ax had pulled out, questions arose about whether the cancellation had just occurred, or whether the competition’s sponsors had waited until the last possible minute to announce it, in order that press coverage would not be scaled back. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) 06/14/02

MONTREAL MOVES ON AMID FALLOUT: The consequences of Charles Dutoit’s ouster in Montreal continue to mount. Just as the orchestra seemed to be moving on, appointing a 13-member committee to search for Dutoit’s successor as music director, two more star soloists, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emmanuel Ax, announced that they were cancelling their engagements with the ensemble for next season. Andante 06/13/02

LOOKING FOR THE NEXT TENOR: With the era of the Three Tenors gasping and wheezing to a close, the obvious question rears its head: who’s next? Could it be the much-maligned Andrea Bocelli, whose fans are so devoted as to resemble pop fans? What about Salvatore Licitra, who pulled off a stunning New York debut while standing in for Pavarotti at the Met last month? And isn’t it about time Ben Heppner got a turn in the big spotlight? Boston Herald 06/14/02

MORE INTRIGUE IN EDMONTON: Last winter’s bitter battle between the management and musicians of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra centered around the orchestra’s deposed music director, Grzegorz Nowak, and developed into a heated discussion over whether musicians have a right to some control of their orchestra’s direction. In the thick of the fight, Nowak threatened to take the ESO musicians (who by and large supported him) and start his own orchestra. Plans have been scaled back a bit, but Nowak is making good on his threat. Edmonton Journal 06/13/02

• TOO MUCH MUSIC? Grzegorz Nowak insists that his new chamber orchestra is not designed to compete with the ESO, and points out that the two ensembles will perform on different dates, and even share musicians. But the relationship is sure to be somewhat antagonistic, and some critics are worried that the city cannot support two separate concert series. Edmonton Journal 06/14/02

BURN BABY BURN: Music fan are being offered an easy new way to burn CDs in Sydney – vending machines. “There are about 20 Copy Cat machines installed in convenience stores and photocopying shops around Sydney where burning a CD costs $5, plus $2 for a blank. The machines are ostensibly legitimate because they come with a notice warning users about copyright infringements.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/14/02

• THE DIGITAL CATCH-22: The debate over CD-copying technology and music piracy is more complex than either side usually cares to admit. On the one hand, the industry is quite aware of studies that show that copying technology has led to a wider and more voracious market for purchased CDs. On the other, the professional music pirates who are glutting the world market with discs are a major threat to profit margins. What’s a giant corporate media industry to do? Wired 06/14/02

FINALISTS TO REDESIGN AVERY FISHER HALL: Lincoln Center has chosen three architects as finalists to redesign Avery Fisher Hall. Sir Norman Foster, Raphael Moneo and the team of Richard Meier and Arata Isozaki will reimagine the hall, which is to be redone as part of a proposed $1.2 billion makeover of Lincoln Center. The New York Times 06/14/02

Thursday June 13

THE DOWNLOAD EFFECT? A prominent economics professor studying the effect of music downloading wonders why there isn’t more of an impact on CD sales. Sure, sales were down a bit last year, and it could be explained by the recession. Estimates of downloads are five times greater than CD sales. Yet CD sales are only down 5 percent. Perhaps digital trading isn’t hurting legit sales? Salon 06/13/02

• ANOTHER TRY AT PAY-PER-DOWNLOAD: Trying to head off music pirates, “Universal and Sony plan to sell tens of thousands of high-quality digital albums for $US9.99 and singles for up to US99¢ through online retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy and Sam Goody.” So far pay-to-download sites have not been successful, but the two companies hope the drastically reduced prices will attract buyers. The Age (Melbourne) 06/13/02
• IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM… “Other major labels are likely to follow as the record business grapples with the rise of online music copying through unauthorized services such as Napster, Kazaa and Morpheus and potentially billions of dollars in lost sales. Rather than trying to force consumers to buy music on the labels’ terms, the services signal that record companies are slowly adapting to Internet-fueled changes in the marketplace.” Los Angeles Times 06/12/02

E-JUDGING: A new international piano features an e-judge – pianist Yefim Bronfman, who will tune in to performances sitting in Japan, while the competition plays out in Minnesota. “Mr. Bronfman, whom the contest’s Web site (www.piano-e-competition.com) calls an “e-judge,” is to sit in a 200-seat recital hall in the international headquarters of the Yamaha Corporation listening to the performances of the young pianists in St. Paul as reproduced onstage through a Yamaha Disklavier Pro piano, essentially a 21st-century player piano. The contest does raise questions about the uniqueness of live performance and the appropriate uses of ever-advancing technology in music.” The New York Times 06/13/02

• THE E-MASTERCLASS: Meanwhile, violinist Pinchas Zukerman will conduct a masterclass in Ottawa today for a trio playing in New York. The class will be held at 2 pm (ET) over high-speed internet, and anyone can tune in to the 90-minute lesson. MSNBC 06/13/02

AN ORCHESTRA TRAVELS ON ITS STOMACHS: What makes a great orchestra? “Someone should write a doctorate some day on why certain middle-sized cities (Birmingham, Dresden and Cleveland) manage to generate and sustain world-class orchestras, while others (Glasgow, Frankfurt or Seattle) fail to do so.” Outgoing Cleveland Orchestra music director says success comes down to parking spaces. And lockers. And food. “My gimmick is I pay them a lot of money. Think about it. Our musicians don’t have problems with traffic. They can get to work in 10 minutes. They all have parking spaces. They all have lockers. There’s a good canteen. Compared with a London musician’s living, it’s heaven.” The Guardian (UK) 06/13/02

WHY I SWORE OFF MOZART: Norman Lebrecht has had his fill of Mozart. One performance too many? “It is so widely assumed that Mozart must be good for you that, in Alabama, the Governor sends Amadeus’s greatest hits to pregnant women in the hope of turning their embryos into Einsteins, and in Sweden they play K467 in labour wards to ease the pangs of parturition. The Mozart Effect is becoming a tenet of nursery education. Myself, I am more concerned at the risk of brain rot.” London Evening Standard 06/12/02

Wednesday June 12

NEW ENDINGS: Puccini never finished Turandot, his last opera. It is usually performed using an ending written by one of the composer’s contemporaries. But “this year a newly composed ending to Puccini’s opera is causing a huge international stir. In quick succession there have been a first concert hearing in the Canary Islands, the first stage production in Los Angeles, and now the first European production in Amsterdam. And no wonder when it is the work of Luciano Berio. Here is a unique meeting of minds between two imposing Italians – both leading composers of their day, both steeped in opera, but reaching out across a gap of three generations.” Financial Times 06/12/02

THEFT ON A GRAND SCALE: Sales of pirated music cds doubled in 2001 to 950 million, says a new report. But overall the number of “pirated recordings, including CDs and cassettes, totaled nearly 2 billion in 2001, up just slightly from a year earlier. The figure means that two out of every five recordings sold worldwide in 2001 was an illegal copy. Illegal music sales outnumber legal sales in 25 countries, compared with 21 countries a year earlier.” Boston Globe (AP) 06/11/02

THE SYDNEY CLAP: “Quelle horreur! Audience members are increasingly clapping at the wrong time in classical music performances. Over the past year organisers from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra have noticed the trend in many local concerts. Recent SSO performances of Brahms, with acclaimed Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker at the Sydney Opera House, reportedly featured continual bouts of clapping in parts meant to be silent. But, perhaps to the disgust of classical music buffs, neither institution seems particularly worried.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/12/02

SET OF DESTRUCTION: Opera Carolina in Charlotte is out almost $600,000 worth of sets for its production of a Carlisle Floyd opera were accidentally destroyed. The company was storing the sets in a building loaned to them by a local real estate management company. The company decided earlier this year to have the building demolished, but forgot to tell the opera company. Charlotte Observer 06/11/02

Tuesday June 11

MUSIC’S TERRIFIC COSTS: Lessons, instruments…the costs add up. It can cost $500,000 to train a student to become a professional musician. So does that mean that only rich kids get the support to become first-rate musicians? “Most musicians who end up as professionals come from affluent backgrounds. There’s a number of talented students who come from more ordinary families, but they have great trouble trying to buy high-quality lessons and instruments.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/11/02

Monday June 10

BURSTING THE BUBBLE: Why is the recording industry in danger of collapse? “It is hard to think of a more profound business crisis. You’ve lost control of the means of distribution, promotion, and manufacturing. You’ve lost quality control – in some sense, there’s been a quality-control coup. You’ve lost your basic business model – what you sell has become as free as oxygen. It’s a philosophical as well as a business crisis – which compounds the problem, because the people who run the music business are not exactly philosophers.” New York Magazine 06/10/02

SAVING SAN DIEGO: The San Diego Symphony has twice gone bankrupt. America’s seventh-largest city has never been able to field an orchestra to compete with cities of similar size. And yet, a $120 million gift to the orchestra promises to put it on solid enough footing to build something real. Here’s the story of how the orchestra came back from financial ruin to play another day. Los Angeles Times 06/09/02

DIGITAL PIRACY – MORE THAN JUST THEFT: Stealing is wrong, right? And piracy is stealing, right? So who’s getting hurt by all this digital music downloading going on over the internet? Maybe it’s more valuable to musicians that their work is “stolen?” After all, aren’t reputations and demand established by familiarity and how much your music is out there and appreciated? Just a thought. NewMusicBox 06/02

THE CASE OF THE MISSING STRAD: In April a $1.6 million Stradivarius violin was stolen from a shop in New York. But what’s the point? “I don’t understand it, this thief. What would this person do, keep it for themselves, play it in solitude? Whenever it surfaces, it will be recognized.” All of the more than 600 surviving Stradivarius violins have been extensively catalogued and photographed. Orange County Register (NYDN) 06/09/02

SAVING ORCHESTRAS FOR THE FUTURE: How to get new audiences to come to classical music concerts? Orchestras discuss the issue endlessly. “You hear all this talk about marketing the ‘excitement’ of orchestras. Well it’s not always about excitement. It’s about contemplation, introspection, idealism.” The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 06/09/02

WHO TO PAY? “At the end of last year, a windfall amounting to more than $250,000 (U.S.) owing to hundreds of Canadian musicians who had performed on recording sessions for major labels during the past five years was sitting idle in an American trust fund because no one knew it was there or how to collect it.” Toronto Star 06/10/02

Sunday June 9

THE GENDER ORCHESTRA: Are there “girl” musical instruments and “boy” musical instruments? A new study says yes. Boys consistently preferred instruments traditionally identified as male. “Using accepted British, Australian and North American classifications, ‘male’ instruments in this study were deemed drums, saxophone, trumpet and trombone, as opposed to the more ‘feminine’ apparati of flute, violin, clarinet, cello.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/08/02

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN SOUND AND MUSIC: It’s certainly not a new idea, but using everyday sound as fodder for music is finding new fans. “A California group called Matmos makes pieces of music entirely out of the recorded sounds of plastic surgery being performed. A British technician called Matthew Herbert makes dance music entirely out of the sound of a McDonald’s meal being unwrapped and consumed. They are both part of a trend sometimes known as ‘glitch,’ which is music made without any instruments, entirely of found sounds, which are then arranged into musical patterns. Glitch is primarily about what fun can be had with samplers and computer-editing programs, but it is also about bridging the gap between pop music and conceptual art.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/08/02

THE NEW CHOPIN: When Chopin wrote his 24 piano preludes, he experimented with a 25th in E-flat minor, but abandoned it. Now a University of Pennsylvania professor has reconstructed the piece. It “shows a degree of experimentalism we hadn’t known before. At the same time, that’s why it doesn’t work. You’ve got the experimentalism in sound, but the chord progression isn’t that strange.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/08/02

THE ULTIMATE CROSSOVER? The Andrea Bocelli phenomenon just keeps on going. “Bocelli’s success has been prodigious, and controversial. For the opera mavens in the Internet chat rooms, he’s an impostor, a pop-star microphone singer who has no business singing opera. For millions of fans he is a pop star – his Romanza album sold 25 million copies worldwide, and at one point only the Spice Girls topped him on the charts; some of his fans probably wonder what all this opera stuff is about and wish he would just sing more soulful power ballads.” Boston Globe 06/09/02

Friday June 7

GOING HOME: Across America there is a growing movement to take classical music concerts back into private homes. Chamber music was written for smaller spaces, and a number of organizations have sprung up to stage home concerts – sometimes with big-name performers. Christian Science Monitor 06/07/02

GENDER-TYPING: There are more and more female classical music critics writing today. It’s a field traditionally dominated by males. But “isn’t it funny that her increased acceptance in the ranks of critics — that is, among the shapers rather than receivers of opinion — happens to coincide with the striking decline, purely in terms of space, of classical music coverage in news outlets across the nation?” Andante 06/06/02

RATTLE IN CALIFORNIA: Star conductor Simon Rattle hasn’t performed in the Bay Area since 1988. But it turns out the new Berlin Philharmonic chief is a regular visitor – his kids live there. Tonight he performs as a pianist with his son. In a rare American interview he tells Joshua Kosman that he never really considered leading an American orchestra. “I know that with any American orchestra, I would’ve had to spend a lot of my time fighting for existence, reminding people why we had to be there and taking much more of an educational role than I wanted to take on at this time in my life.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/07/02

MORE THAN JUST THE MUSIC: Today’s pop musicians have to be so much more than good musicians. Media smarts are essential. “For quite a few years now, having a distinctive sound has not been enough to prevent people from being one-hit wonders. Today’s pop musicians need to be all-round talents and their careers depend less on the music than on marketing.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/07/02

JANSONS TO LEAVE PITTSBURGH: Conductor Mariss Jansons is quitting as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony after the 2003/2004 season. “Jansons’ long-standing disappointment over low attendance at Heinz Hall concerts was not given as a reason for leaving, said PSO officials, nor did he mention any of his recent frustrations with orchestra musicians over artistic direction. And while he’s previously expressed the feeling that the arts get too little respect in Pittsburgh, orchestra officials said Jansons made no mention of that in announcing his departure.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 06/07/02

• THE SPECULATION BEGINS: Finding a replacement for Jansons “seems especially difficult, as major orchestras in Europe and the United States have filled most of the vacancies that were the talk of the classical music world in the past three years.” Here’s a speculative list. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 06/07/02

Thursday June 6

RESISTANT TO PROTECTION: Recording producers want to protect their music from piracy and unauthorized copying. They might be able to accomplish it by embedding codes that prevent digital copying. But there’s one big problem – music consumers, the kind that actually buy music, won’t buy protected discs. What to do? Wired 06/06/02

SJ SYMPHONY WOES LONGSTANDING: Does this week’s closure of the San Jose Symphony mean the city can’t support its arts institutions? Not necessarily. “The symphony’s problems have been entrenched and long-standing. The programming and leadership of music director Leonid Grin has been criticized as limited in scope and dynamism. When the orchestra stopped giving concerts in October, it was already $2.5 million in the hole.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/05/02

REMEMBERING MEET THE COMPOSER: Over 15 years, beginning in 1982, Meet the Composer commissioned more than 700 works. “Thanks in part to the MTC’s efforts, the 1980s witnessed a marked increase in the commissioning and performance of new scores. By 1992, however, the initiative’s funding dried up and all but six of the residencies came to an end. Some orchestras simply dropped the position when they were forced to pay for it. Others, like the Philadelphia Orchestra, maintained it for several years but eventually eliminated it for budgetary reasons.” Now a festival to commemorate the program’s accomplishments. Andante 06/06/02

BLACK MUSICIANS M.I.A.: Coalitions of musicians have been working to change the kinds of contract deals they get from recording companies. Notably missing from the efforts? Black musicians. “There is the perception of those [black] artists who do know about these movements, who do get to hear about them—and many have not—that this is a white movement, that this is something that white people are doing. And there is a distrust of white people and their intentions.” Village Voice 06/04/02

WHERE WERE THE YOUNG? “Queen Elizabeth II’s reign has coincided with the explosive birth and ongoing evolution of a vibrant pop culture. Although it may have had little impact on Her Majesty’s dress sense, she has presided over rock and roll, the beat boom, psychedelia, heavy rock, prog rock, reggae, punk, ska, indie, new romance, electro pop, acid house, hip hop, trip hop, Britpop, jungle and garage.” Yet the big concert celebrating her reign was composed almost entirely of the geriatric set. Big names, sure, but where are the younger pop musicians? The Telegraph (UK) 06/06/02

NOT VERY COMMITTED: “Edo de Waart, the mercurial chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, will not be returning to Sydney this year to fulfil his obligations with the orchestra, opting, instead, to stay at home in the Netherlands for the birth of his child.” de Waart has ditched other SSO concerts this year, and has complained about the hardship of commuting to Australia from Europe. He has 18 months left on his contract. Sydney Morning Herald 06/06/02

Wednesday June 5

SAN JOSE SYMPHONY GOES BANKRUPT: After trying to revive itself through fundraising, the San Jose Symphony calls it quits. The orchestra had already shut down operations last winter but had hoped to regroup. “The announcement concludes months of uncertainty about the future of the 123-year-old institution. With an estimated $3.4 million in debt and just $300,000 in assets, the symphony seemed increasingly likely to fold. Concert attendance had fallen off. To make ends meet, the organizers borrowed money on credit. The symphony’s status has been in limbo since it was shut down last October because of mismanagement and spiraling debt.” San Jose Mercury News 06/03/02

• PLAYERS LET LOOSE: “Symphony leaders hope to resurrect the organization in a new form, but nobody knows when that might happen. San Jose Symphony players never made a full income there. Most earned around $24,000.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/05/02

ROYAL OPERA STRIKE? The Covent Garden backstage costumers department is threatening to go on strike. “Angry staff claim the management is refusing to honour an agreement made 18 months ago to increase the salaries of the craftspeople who make the wigs and costumes.” The Guardian (UK) 06/05/02

Tuesday June 4

TO PROTECT (NOT SERVE): “At least two Canadian record companies will begin testing copyright-protected CDs this summer, But record executives in Canada and the United States are worried about possible consumer backlash. If music-lovers conclude that the sound quality of copyright-protected discs is inferior, or the discs “gum up” the CD players in their cars or the hard drives in their computers, or they see the technology as a Big Brother-style intrusion and restriction by impersonal, profit-hungry labels, the conventions that have governed the commercial recording industry for decades could be further eroded.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/04/02

YANKS ABANDON BRITS: “Americans who embraced Beatlemania, progressive rock and the New Romantics have been left cold by Britpop and U.K. Garage. A music industry report released this week says the British share of Billboard’s annual top 100 albums chart has plummeted from a high of 32 percent in 1986 – when bands like Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys and Simple Minds rode the British wave – to just 0.2 percent in 1999 and 1.7 percent in 2000. Last year, the share was 8.8 percent – but more than one-third of the British sales were of a single album: The Beatles 1 anthology.” New York Post 06/03/02

DOHNANYI FINISHES IN CLEVELAND: Christoph von Dohnanyi finishes his term with the Cleveland Orchestra. His “20 years at the Cleveland Orchestra came to an end with a concert performance of Wagner’s Siegfried, which stretched from early twilight to midnight. Opinions about conductors and orchestras tend to be filed under separate categories, but the Cleveland-Dohnanyi experience argues for chemistry rather than individual ingredients.” The New York Times 06/04/02

Monday June 3

BRITAIN’S MUSIC MYTH: “Britain has a long and inglorious tradition of attempting to subjugate the planet by asserting its culture. This is the perceived superiority upon which an empire was built, and it should have withered away years ago when we realised foreign countries didn’t need British tastes to be fully functional. But old prejudices die hard, and it’s ironic that they persist in that supposedly rebellious establishment, the music business.” The Scotsman 06/02/02

WHEN MOVIES NICK MUSIC: “Nothing wrong with learning about lovely pieces of music through movies, of course. One tends to hear them fragmented and without context that way, but still, better to hear the pieces there than never at all. But I still find it odd that we begin to refer to these enduring works with the names of the films or even the commercials that used them five minutes ago.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/01/02

MASUR MADE EMERITUS: They may have terminated his contract, but the New York Philharmonic still has feelings for outgoing music director Kurt Masur. The orchestra has named Masur “music director emeritus, making him the only person other than Leonard Bernstein to receive an honorary title from the symphony.” Nando Times (AP) 06/02/02

• I COME TO PRAISE HIM: “For once Mr. Masur was speechless. He embraced Mr. Mehta, warmly grabbed the hands of every orchestra player within reach, and acknowledged the outpouring from the shouting, standing audience. But there was no speech. He seemed genuinely overwhelmed. On the other hand he may have been reluctant to speak. What could he have said? The occasion was surely bittersweet, since the board that had just honored him had also pushed him into premature retirement. The tension in the hall was palpable during the short ceremony.” The New York Times 06/03/02
• LONG FOND FAREWELL (YEAH, YEAH): “Masur’s departure from New York is increasingly taking on the form of a study in paradoxical familiarity. He must go, but the idea is that he has to look a little as though he wanted to go. Is that why he is being swamped with laurel wreaths? Are New Yorkers now praising him because they’re feeling guilty?” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/02/02

SAME OLD SAME OLD: American orchestras have announced next year’s seasons. So why do so many of them look alike? Same pieces, same presentation. “What makes our orchestras’ schedules look so repetitive is not only that they repeat one another but also that they keep repeating a few well-tried formulas, right through their programming.” The New York Times 06/02/02

AFRAID OF OPERA? What’s up with Opera Theater of St. Louis’ new promotional ads? ” ‘I’m not afraid of opera,’ say the ads on radio and in print, thus equating the world’s greatest and most glorious art form with trips to the dentist.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 06/02/02

Sunday June 2

MUSICIAN, INC, PART I: “Concert ticket prices are skyrocketing – especially for bands born in the anti-materialist ’60s. Concert ticket prices have shot up 54 percent in the last five years, compared with only 24 percent for movie, sports and theater tickets. The Rolling Stones are charging a jaw-dropping $350 for the best seats to their U.S. tour; the top tickets on Paul McCartney’s just-ended tour sold for $250. And as prices rise, so does tension between disgruntled music fans who cry “sellout” and the musicians who say they’re just going by supply and demand – that if they don’t charge these prices, scalpers will.” Dallas Morning News 06/02/02

• MUSICIAN, INC, PART II: More and more big-name musicians are choosing not to sign (or re-sign) with large music labels, instead recording and producing on their own labels. “It just goes to show you that we basically traded in a larger machine for a more well-tooled machine. It’s like all small businesses. You do more specific targeting and cut out waste.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

AMATEUR FOR THE LOVE OF IT: The Third International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs beging this week in Dallas. “The amateur competition draws some powerfully driven contestants, people with distinguished careers in medicine, academia, technology and law. This year’s slate includes a missionary, a couple of accountants, a veterinarian and an architect.” Dallas Morning News 06/02/02

CROSSING OVER TO WHAT? Classical crossover music is a hot category these days, but why? “Is crossover – the name given a recording by a classical artist venturing into a non-classical area of music and aimed mainly at non-classical record buyers – a healthy means of bridging the gap between the classical and non-classical markets, or a crass ploy to kick new life into sagging sales? Is it creating new audiences for classical music, or merely fueling the demand for more crossover? In today’s anxious, Internet-battered market, nobody has any definitive answers.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

WHERE ARE THE MEN? “The once-glamorized male jazz singer practically has vanished from America’s cultural radar. Worse, the men are AWOL at the very moment that their female counterparts, as well as jazz instrumentalists of both sexes, are enjoying resurgent popularity.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

• ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD: Forty years after his first professional gig, Frank Sinatra Jr. is still on the road singing. Singing in the shadow of his famous dad has certainly been an impediment to his career, but he’s still out there trying to keep the ‘era’s music alive. “We’re losing this music. We lost Miss Peggy Lee two months ago. Between Keely Smith, Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett, that’s just about all that’s left. A whole era is passing.” Chicago Sun-Times 06/02/02

Friday May 31

DIGITAL PROMOTION: Eminem’s new album shipped early because the music was already available over the internet in pirate digital copies. Indeed, music from the album was so widely traded on the net, that Eminem’s recording company feared sales of the album in stores would be way off. But the album has debuted at No. 1 in record time, adding to the argument that file-swapping on the internet promotes sales of recordings, not discourages them. Nando Times (AP) 05/30/02

• COPIES HELP NOT HURT: “The big record companies’ complaints about your new CD burner and file-sharing services like Napster, Kazaa and Music City are hogwash. The big record companies have built their case on what seems a logical premise. They contend that if you can download the new Ashanti song for free from the Internet or borrow your friend’s copy of the new Bonnie Raitt CD in order to burn one for yourself, then they’ve lost a sale. No doubt some music fans behave this way. But not most. That’s the point of a study by Jupiter Research, a leading Internet and new technology research firm. Jupiter found that people who use file-sharing networks to obtain free music or who make homemade CDs are likely to maintain or increase their spending on music.” Boston Herald 05/31/02

BERLIN’S “DANGEROUS” OPERA HOUSE: Daniel Barenboim, director of Berlin’s Staatsoper has warned that the opera house is in such disrepair that it is a danger to audiences and performers. “Barenboim’s complaint came four days after an aged hydraulic stage lift collapsed during a performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, bringing down with it parts of the decor. No one was injured, but the performance was interrupted for 20 minutes.” Chicago Sun-Times 05/7/02

Thursday May 30

EXPLOITING THE YOUNG? The 60 music students from the Royal Academy of Music who agreed to play for free in an orchestra to accompany Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and Tom Jones at a £4 million charity concert in Buckingham Palace gardens next week, are being exploited says the British musicians union. “People will be making money out of this event, whether it is record distributors, dealers or publishers. Clearly this concert is a great opportunity to showcase young talent, but we argue young talent should be treated equally.” The Guardian (UK) 05/29/02

KURT MASUR’S BUM DEAL: After ten years as music director of the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur is leaving. “By any measure Mr. Masur has accomplished what he was asked to do. And how did the Philharmonic’s board reward him? By severing his contract.” The New York Times 05/30/02

CUTTING OUT THE MIDDLEMAN: The most frustrating part of buying a stringed instrument for any musician is navigating the deceptive and self-serving world of dealers who can set prices with impunity, and often charge buyers three to four times what they paid for a given instrument. But a new culture of online instrument auctions is gathering momentum, and, given time, it may well change the way all but the wealthiest musicians shop for the tools of their trade. Andante 05/30/02

MAYBE THIS EXPLAINS BRITNEY? Payola, the practice of paying radio DJs to promote certain records over others, was outlawed decades ago. “Now, however, a growing coalition of music and consumer groups and members of Congress charge that payola is back in a disturbing new form involving middlemen promoters who skirt the law while operating legally to the detriment of artists and the listening public.” San Francisco Chronicle (NY Times) 05/30/02

SIZE MATTERS: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Uh, rent it out, actually, just as dozens of small groups and high schools do every year, their modest performances sandwiched between the world’s greatest classical ensembles. The rental concerts generally draw small crowds, but a group of New Jersey school kids are anticipating quite a crowd for their Brahms German Requiem this week. The interest can be chalked up to the scale of the thing: the orchestra will contain 150 musicians, and the choir, which will spill over into the seating area, will number 250. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/30/02

Wednesday May 29

DUTOIT SUPPORTER BOLTS MONTREAL: Tim Hutchins, principal flute of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, is leaving for Pittsburgh following the acrimonious departure of Montreal music director Charles Dutoit. Hutchins is an unapologetic Dutoit supporter, and resigned as chairman of the orchestra’s musicians’ committee when it became clear that a majority of his colleagues held a much dimmer view than he of the famously temperamental conductor. Hutchins has been principal flute in Montreal for nearly a quarter of a century. Montreal Gazette 05/28/02

FINISHING TURANDOT (AGAIN): Puccini’s Turandot is widely considered to be the Italian master’s greatest opera, and yet the composer was unable to complete the work before his death in 1924. An ending was commissioned from Franco Alfano, but it has always been considered amateurish and not up to the standard of the rest of the work. This year, a new ending is making the rounds of the world’s opera houses, with the addendum courtesy of Italy’s greatest living composer, Luciano Berio, and is garnering dramatically better reviews. Los Angeles Times 05/27/02

SPOLETO USA IN THE BLACK: “When the Spoleto Festival USA announced last summer that it intended to raise $25 million for programming, an endowment, and restoring a building, it also said it already had raised $18 million. Now the annual Charleston, S.C., arts festival, which opened Friday and will end June 9, is in its 26th year with $23 million collected or promised. That is not the kind of news people expect from a festival that has struggled with money from its first year.” Philadelphia Inquirer (Knight Ridder) 05/29/02

RISE AND FALL: It’s the 50th anniversary of the singles charts for records. “But it’s hard to pretend that it isn’t now dealing with an irreparably tarnished institution. A once richly varied and hard-fought battleground on which rival talents would engage in titanic struggles for weeks on end to attain that coveted No 1 slot, the pop-singles chart has degenerated into a dismal procession of formulaic releases, each recklessly catapulted to the top – and then to hell – with equal dispatch.” The Independent (UK) 05/27/02

• WEBCASTING FOR FUN AND NO PROFIT: Music was supposed to be fun, so we were always told. But with the radio and recording industries now so corporate-driven as to make most stations and releases indistinguishable, webcasting was developed as a way to get exposure for music never heard on today’s ultrasanitized Top 20 countdowns and generic music video channels. So why all the brouhaha over webcasting royalties? It seems that the corporate music monolith isn’t enjoying the competition. Chicago Tribune 05/29/02

THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE: The newest fad in the world of electronic music is known as ‘lowercase sound,’ and it is every bit as understated and subtle as techno (electronica’s most mainstream contribution to music) is bombastic. Lowercase focuses on computer magnification of incredibly soft sounds, and contains many long stretches of silence in between music so soft that some listeners don’t realize it’s there at all. Wired 05/29/02

Tuesday May 28

PRODIGY WINNER: Jennifer Pike, a 12 year-old violinist became the youngest person ever to win the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year award with a “breathtaking performance of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto on a Stradivarius borrowed from the Royal Academy of Music and with minor assistance from her lucky mascot, a fluffy cat called Kitty.” The Guardian (UK) 05/28/02

• GREAT PERFORMANCES, BUT… “Pike was the youngest of the five finalists, so it is only right to sound a note of caution. This competition is not necessarily about musicians who are on the threshold of a professional career, but is an acknowledgment of achievement at a particular stage of study.” The Telegraph (UK) 05/28/02

Monday May 27

MUSIC AS EXPRESSION: Composer Tod Machover has helped develop a computer program that helps people who don’t know anything about music, compose their own pieces. The software helps “convert expressive gestures — lines, patterns, textures and colors — made on the screen into pleasing and variable sounds. The goal, he said, is to let children have ‘the direct experience of translating their own thoughts and feelings into music. Then music becomes a living, personal activity, and not a given which is handed down from experts or from history’.” The New York Times 05/27/02

LET’S FOCUS ON THE PRODUCT: The perpetually underfunded Scottish Opera had a great new season to announce last week. But the company spoiled all the excitement by unleashing a tirade about needing more money. “Everyone has hopes, aspirations, fears, concerns, and visions for the future. Scottish Opera has more than most. In an act of stupendous naivety, gaucherie, or stupidity (delete according to opinion), Scottish Opera’s two top executives unleashed all of these last week at precisely the moment when they were unveiling their latest product. Don’t they understand that when you have a big, sexy, and rather surprising product to sell, you focus exclusively on that product – they do want people to go out and buy tickets, don’t they?” Glasgow Herald 05/24/02

CUTTING INTO FRANKFURT: The city of Frankfurt has a quota of performances it expects from its opera company in return for city funding. So along comes a budget crunch and the city cuts millions out of the company’s subsidies. What kind of sense does this make? It barely saves money, since canceling productions still means that contracted performers have to be paid. “Perhaps only a psychoanalyst can understand the soul of Frankfurt. Why does everything always have to go wrong? Once, people would have called it a curse. Today, we speak of a virus: the short-sightedness of always cutting the budget by sacrificing art and culture.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/26/02

SURVIVOR: The St. Petersburg Philharmonic has long been one of Russia’s cultural jewels. But since the USSR went away, money for culture has been tight. From nearly unlimited budgets harnessed to the orchestra’s product, the orchestra has in recent years had difficulty just paying its musicians. “But aid is coming in. American friends of the orchestra have given money for new instruments, and an oil magnate whom [music director Yuri] Temirkanov knows has donated enough cash to double the orchestral wages.” The Telegraph (UK) 05/27/02

LATVIA WINS EUROVISION: For the first time ever, a performer from Latvia has won the Eurovision Song Contest. “Marija Naumova’s Latin-influenced song I Wanna beat off strong competition from Malta to win the prize with the very last vote of the competition.” BBC 05/26/02

Sunday May 26

HOW CHICAGO GOT ITS SOUND: Chicago jazz has always had a different flavor than that from New Orleans or New York. “Clearly, Chicago musicians take pride in the distinctiveness of their sound, and for good reason. Removed from the commercial pressures of Manhattan and the pop-oriented recording studios of Los Angeles, the Chicagoans always have forged a rougher, harder-hitting jazz than most of their counterparts on the coasts.” Chicago Tribune 05/26/02

HOW I COLLECTED 23,000 RECORDINGS: Music critic John von Rhein is wrestling with his collection of recordings. The music is “an invaluable source of reference and pleasure, and an albatross. The need to collect recorded music cannot be explained rationally. Once the process has reached a certain point, it takes on an insidious life of its own. Why on earth would I want to own 26 CD recordings and nine LPs of the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto?” Chicago Tribune 05/26/02

SECOND ACTS: Itzhak Perlman is one of the great violinists of the past century. But since he turned 50 a few years ago, increasingly his interested have turned to teaching and conducting. “That means he’ll make a call to a student at intermission of one of his own concerts if he remembers something he forgot to say during a lesson.” As for conducting, “his stick technique is quirky, but the players can follow him; he communicates through a deep reservoir of animated expressions and gestures. He has large, strong hands, and all those years of walking on crutches have created tremendous torque in his upper body; his physical energy is commanding.” Detroit Free Press 05/26/02

CONDUCTOR MOVES ON: Eiji Oue is leaving his post as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. The orchestra has a long and storied history, but had fallen into a rut before Oue came. “His greatest and most indelible feat is intangible — coaxing this orchestra to perform from the heart rather than the mind. It also exposed what some see as his greatest failing. People inside and outside the orchestra see Oue as soft and underinvolved in the technical details required for flawless performance. Oue wanted his musicians to soar through a boundless skyline; with Oue, some musicians felt adrift in the wind.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 05/26/02

Friday May 24

TECHNO-LY SPEAKING: The Detroit Electronic Music Festival drew more than one million people in each of its first two years. Still, the music is much better received in Europe than in the US, and Detroit festival organizers wonder why. National Post 05/24/02

WISH YOU WERE HERE: A new international piano competition in Minnesota will be conducted partly over the internet. Competitors playing in the Twin Cities will have their performances instantly recreated via the internet on a similarly equipped piano at Yamaha headquarters in Japan. Devices on the pianos record and playback every keystroke, transmitting the performances to judges Emmanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman, sitting in Japan. “Digital video of the performance, also transmitted via cyberspace, will play on a large digital monitor so the overseas judges can watch as well.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 05/23/02

WHAT BECOMES A GREAT CONDUCTOR? Does a conductor have to be a dictator to be great? Or should he be the friend next door? One wonders after the (apparently) dictatorial Charles Dutoit made a hard exit from the Montreal Symphony. “The ideal conductor, if such a paragon exists, would command the magnetism of a perfect father, the imagination of a poet, the memory of a historian, the patience of a saint, the intellect of a genius, the technique of a virtuoso and the ambition of a salesman. All this plus the friendly manner of the little guy next door.” Unfortunately, like is a series of compromises… Andante 05/23/02

BUT ARE THEY ARTISTS? Over the past two decades, “a subculture of ‘turntablists’ has grown up – ‘scratchers’ invest hundreds of dollars and hours of time hovering over two turntables and a mixer, their fast-moving hands furiously scratching up records and wearing down needles. They’re found onstage at nightclubs, in the corner at house parties, and even alongside the conductor at symphony concerts. But are they simply disc jockeys? Or are they true musical artists?” Christian Science Monitor 05/24/02

SING FLING: Choirs aren’t just for church anymore. In the US, “over the past two decades, community choruses have sprung up everywhere, supplementing the wealth of church choirs that traditionally have formed the musical backbone of many communities. A National Endowment for the Arts study found that 1 in 10 American adults now sings weekly in some kind of chorus.” Christian Science Monitor 05/24/02

ABRUPT EXIT: Giving only a week’s notice, Dallas Opera General Director Mark Whitworth-Jones quits the company after two years on the job. He “acknowledged frustration with the local fund raising situation during the economic downturn and in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He said subscription revenue was down 17 percent during the 2001-02 season. The company has also found its fund raising for annual operations competing with efforts to raise money for the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, as part of the proposed Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.” Dallas Morning News 05/23/02

Thursday May 23

THE SHAM THAT IS THE CLASSICAL BRITS: The Classical Brit Awards are a shallow exercise, writes Norman Lebrecht. There’s really only one “real” classical artist up for an award. “The rest are a motley band of dabblers and distorters, rock mimics and studio-made combos who call themselves ‘classical’ for any number of reasons, none of them credible.” London Evening Standard 05/22/02

WEBCASTERS NOT IN THE CLEAR YET: The Librarian of Congress this week rejected a proposed royalty payment system to be applied to webcasters who play commercial music for public consumption. But while the decision was a great relief to webcasters, who claimed they would have been effectively rendered extinct by the plan due to the high royalties, the issue has not been put to rest yet. Within 30 days, the Librarian must issue his own set of recommendations, and word is that the plan may have to involve a whole new way of calculating royalties, one which takes listenership into account rather than just number of songs played. Boston Globe 05/23/02

GIVING THEIR ALL (AND THEN SOME): “The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra donates its time for 12 school concerts each season. The concerts are free for the students, and orchestra volunteers even help the teachers prepare for the experience. In fact, the symphony does everything but drive the students to Heinz Hall. Until now, that is.” Orchestra musicians, frustrated by the lack of inner-city students participating in the program, coughed up $5000 out of their own pockets to bus some 2,000 students to the latest round of shows. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 05/23/02

Wednesday May 22

WEBCASTING FEE REJECTED: The US Librarian of Congress has rejected a “proposal by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel which recommended that webcasters pay recording companies $.0014 per listener for each song they play.” Webcasters claimed that charging the royalty fee would put them out of business. Wired 05/21/02

NEW ARTS CENTER IN PARMA: The city which gave birth to such musical luminaries as Giuseppe Verdi and Arturo Toscanini now has a brand spankin’ new performing arts center. The Casa della Musica boasts “an auditorium, the museum of the famed Teatro Regio opera house, a music library, a multimedia collection and the new seat of the Istituto di Studi Verdiani, an international society active in producing critical editions of Verdi’s scores.” Andante 05/22/02

PROBABLY STOLEN BY A NON-MILLIONAIRE VIOLINIST: “A $100,000 cash reward is being offered for information leading to the return of a $1.6 million Stradivarius violin that disappeared from the workshop of a New York violinmaker. The reward is being offered by Kroll Inc., a global risk consulting company that has been retained to help find the instrument. Kroll, in a news release, said it is working with New York police and is publicizing the disappearance among musicians and collectors in an effort to generate leads.” Andante 05/21/02

HOW TO REJECT FREE PUBLICITY AND ALIENATE FANS: The Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra may not be the most prestigious orchestra in Washington state, but it has apparently mastered the art of acting like a big-dog organization. The BPO is taking legal action against a classical music fan who has registered the domain name “bellevuephilharmonic.org” and set up an unofficial web site meant to drum up support for the ensemble. The orchestra claims the site is diverting traffic from its official site. Eastside Journal (Bellevue) 05/20/02

Tuesday May 21

THE GREAT PATRON: Paul Sacher was the great patron of 20th Century music. He comissioned “more than 120 works, including masterpieces by Bartók, Britten, Honegger, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Milhaud and Tippett.” But he was more personally involved as well. “Throughout his life Sacher’s palatial mansion outside Basle was a kind of upmarket soup kitchen for hard-pressed geniuses. The dying Martinu spent his last weeks there. Honegger and his family lived there, free of charge, for a year. The young Boulez and exiled Rostropovich were accommodated so often that the respective rooms became known as ‘Slava’s apartment’and ‘Pierre’s room’. It is hardly an exaggeration to claim that without Sacher’s money-bags some of the most scintillating musical minds of the last century might have ended up washing dishes.” The Times (UK) 05/21/02

DAMAGE CONTROL: What’s up with British jazz critics? “Too many of them seem to find it really rather awkward to say anything unpleasant about the artists they review. The disobliging word does not even stick in their throats, let alone spring from their lips like a dart; instead, it remains a sad little thought, quickly displaced by brighter, shinier blandishments.” Are they afraid they’ll hurt jazz if they write critical things about it? New Statesman 05/20/02

ANOTHER CONTROVERSIAL PIANO COMPETITION: Controversy dogged the finals of the first-ever Atlanta International Piano Competition. Two of the finalists were students of members of the jury. “The conflict was apparent to many in the audience after Japanese pianist Junko Inada, 30, failed to make the finals. She had no teacher on the jury”, yet some thought she gave the best performance. Atlanta Journal-Constitution 05/20/02

Monday May 20

MUSEUM BUST? The Country Music Hall of Fame opened a handsome new $37 million museum in Nashville a year ago, amid rosy predictions of first-year admissions of 550,000. The reality is considerably less, and the museum is optimistically hoping for 330,000 visitors this year. Houston Chronicle (AP) 05/19/02

WE REALLY DON’T LIKE OUR CUSTOMERS: Sony has incorporated copy protection software into copies of Celine Dion’s new album. “It can actually crash PC’s, and owners of iMac computers from Apple Computer have found that they sometimes cannot eject the discs.” The discs have been sold in Europe but not in the US, though Sony says that may change. The New York Times 05/20/02

DIGITAL DEBATE: Is digital music downloading a good or bad thing for musicians? There are arguments both ways. “The notion that artists can now circumvent record companies and reach their fans through the net is correct in theory but unlikely in practice. In order to attract fans in really large numbers, bands need a large dollop of hype, which costs enormous sums of money, but record companies are willing to risk this kind of investment in the hope that this or that band will become a cash cow.” The Scotsman 05/18/02

Sunday May 19

FOR THAT KIND OF MONEY, IT OUGHT TO PLAY ITSELF: There is no arguing that Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is one of the great musical and artistic achievements of the Western world, so when the earliest known draft went up for auction at Sotheby’s in London, experts expected it to fetch up to £200,000. Guess again: an anonymous telephone bidder snapped up the score for an astounding £1.3 million (US$1.8 million,) stunning other bidders, Beethoven experts, and, presumably, the winner’s accountant. BBC 05/17/02

TORONTO PUSHING FOR THE MAGIC MILLION MARK: Last winter, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in imminent danger of financial collapse, board chairman Bob Rae brokered a deal with the provincial government of Ontario for a “matching” gift of $1 million, if the TSO could raise a million of its own by June 30. With slightly over a month to go, the orchestra is still $300,000 short of the goal, and blood pressures are rising. In most respects, the TSO’s rebuilding effort has been going remarkably well, but without the matching gift from the province, the process would be set back considerably. Toronto Star 05/19/02

HOW ABOUT CORDUROY AND CARDIGANS? The Hallé Orchestra, of Manchester, England, is considering a plan to change the style of dress worn by its musicians on stage. Orchestras the world over have been nearly single-handedly keeping the white-tie-and-tails business afloat for decades, and there have always been mutterings that symphonies will never reach a young audience wearing 19th-century outfits. The plan is far from final, but you can bet that other ensembles will be watching Hallé closely. BBC 05/17/02

TEMIRKANOV GETS OPEN-ENDED DEAL: The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has agreed to extend the tenure of music director Yuri Temirkanov on a year-to-year basis, meaning that the conductor is expected to remain in Baltimore for a long time to come. Temirkanov has garnered mixed reviews with the BSO: he is credited with nurturing a darker, lusher overall sound than the orchestra previously had, but has been sharply criticized (by former BSO music director David Zinman, among others) for his programming decisions, which appear to ignore contemporary music and focus on too narrow a range of repertoire. Baltimore Sun 05/16/02

• FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS: “After this season’s string of bad news days at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra – the dreadfully managed canning of the BSO Chorus, a projected $1 million deficit – [the] announcement that music director Yuri Temirkanov has agreed to stay in the job beyond his initial contract period shone with an extra brightness… There was reason to be concerned about the prospects for Temirkanov’s commitment. The stark truth is that the BSO needs him more than he needs the BSO.” Baltimore Sun 05/19/02

MAKING MUSIC IN THE SHADOW OF THE CITY: Over the last decade, the New Jersey Symphony has become what many believed it could never be: an excellent and well-respected ensemble completely separate from its competitors in nearby New York City, and possessed of a striking combination of marketing savvy and infectious enthusiasm. In an era when many orchestras are struggling for survival, the NJSO has thrived. Now, music director Zdenek Macal, credited with driving much of the orchestra’s artistic growth, is stepping down after a decade at the helm. Andante (AP) 05/19/02

IT’S GOOD TO HAVE PRIORITIES: “Tenor Luciano Pavarotti has postponed a performance in Britain to train for an appearance at the World Cup. The Italian opera star is scheduled to perform in a Three Tenors concert at the tournament in Japan in late June and said he needed time to rehearse.” Nando Times (AP) 05/17/02

• IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL… oh. IT’S OVER, THEN: The jilted opera lovers at the Met last weekend may have been disappointed, but they shouldn’t have been surprised, says one critic. Pavarotti’s career “ended more than a decade ago. Ever since, the credulous punters have been applauding a bloated, vocally enfeebled, tottery parody of the great tenor, or – as the public at a recent alfresco concert in Italy discovered – listening to him lip-synch to a recording.” The Observer (UK) 05/19/02

THE SONG-SWAPPER THAT WOULDN’T DIE: Two days after ArtsJournal reported that Napster would finally die a merciful death in the wake of continuing lawsuits and employee resignations, German media giant Bertelsmann has announced that it is buying the now-legendary song-swapping service, and will turn it into a music subscription service that won’t run afoul of copyright law. The twisted irony of Napster being acquired by the very type of media conglomerate that has been trying to kill it off for the last two years has escaped no one. Wired 05/17/02

THE FUTURE (OR LACK THEREOF) OF WEBCASTING: Depending on who you talk to, recent U.S. Copyright Office action requiring webcasters to pay royalties to the copyright holders of the songs they play was either a much-needed updating of media regulations, or the death knell of the web radio industry. But does either side really have any idea about what the future will hold for online audio? And isn’t it about time that the U.S. got past this silly notion that copyright holders (read: record companies,) rather than performers, receive the royalties for the airplay? Boston Globe 05/19/02

THE LITTLE GENRE THAT TIME FORGOT: Garrison Keillor has written an opera. Well, okay, he hasn’t so much written it as thought it up, and had one of his prairie home companions write it. And it isn’t so much an original opera as it is a parody of some existing bel canto arias. And it isn’t exactly totally finished yet. But it does have Keillor’s name on it, and it has a Lake Wobegon feel guaranteed to sell tickets, and it gets its premiere this coming week in (of course) Minnesota. Saint Paul Pioneer Press 05/19/02

KANSAS CITY GETS A SUPER-PAC: The trend towards huge, multiple-use performing arts centers is proceeding apace, with Kansas City the latest American metropolis to sign on for the ride. The city’s PAC, which comes with a $304 million price tag and looks something like the Sydney Opera House turned inside out with all the corners pounded flat, will include a “2,200-seat theater/opera house and an 1,800-seat orchestra hall. A 500-seat multipurpose ‘experimental theater’ remains part of a future phase of development and fund raising.” Kansas City Star 05/17/02

AND HE SHOWS UP FOR PERFORMANCES, TOO: While the arts world trades gossip about the spectacular collapse of the most famous of the Three Tenors, one of the others has quietly gone about securing his place in operatic history. Placido Domingo, still a fine singer at the age of 61, has broadened his activities over the last decade to include conducting, directing, and the art of running a major opera company. In all these things, he has found success, to the surprise of many observers, and, in so doing, has crafted one of the most impressive operatic careers of the last century. Washington Post 05/22/02

ROBESON REDUX: “On May 18, 1952, Paul Robeson — who will be remembered as one of the greatest singers of the 1940s, the first black superstar in the United States, a civil-rights hero and a tragic figure destroyed by McCarthyism — stood on the back of a flat-bed truck parked at the edge of the Canadian border and sang songs of solidarity to a crowd of 40,000. Fifty years later, that legendary concert will be recreated at the very same park.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/18/02

Friday May 17

THE CRITICS TURN ON KISSIN: Pianist Evgeny Kissin was the wunderkind, a critical favorite. Apparently not anymore. The critics have turned on him: “One short, furious blast in The Guardian managed to squeeze in the phrases ‘totally repellent’, ‘profoundly unpleasant’, ‘heartlessly dazzling’ and ‘entirely monochrome’, concluding that Kissin was some mechanical doll and that the whole event (a recital in Birmingham, part of a tour which reaches London at the end of this month) was ‘the biggest pianistic circus act since David Helfgott’.” What happened? London Evening Standard 05/16/02

BRINGING JAZZ INSIDE (OR IS IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND?): The Detroit Symphony is branching into the jazz world. The orchestra has announced an endowed position for a prominent jazz musician. “It’s very important for us to present art that reflects the heritage of our community, and jazz is a part of that.” His duties include “conducting workshops for area students, acting as a liaison between the DSO and local and national jazz musicians and helping DSO leaders plan future jazz programs.” Detroit Free Press 05/13/02

KEEPING THE JAZZ FREE: The Detroit International Jazz Festival is “the largest free jazz festival in North America.” Now the festival is at a crossroads. “The last two festivals have run deficits of more than $300,000 per year, and attendance has dropped from a high of 857,000 in 1998 to 550,000 last year. Organizers say the festival is not in danger of folding or scaling back, but the red ink cannot continue without consequences. Festival leaders have hatched an ambitious menu of new ideas to increase revenue, boost sponsorship and beef up attendance.” Detroit Free Press 05/13/02

THE VIRTUAL VIOLIN: Electronic music is everywhere. But some instruments – for example, the violin – just don’t translate well in MIDI. Now an inventor has developed a device “that tells a computer everything about a bow’s motion, allowing it to generate a more realistic, emotional sound.” The idea is to produce a sound that can compete with that made on a real instrument. New Scientist 05/16/02

Thursday May 16

SAN JOSE TO FILE BANKRUPTCY? The San Jose Symphony, which shut down earlier this season with a $3.4 million deficit, and which has been trying to reorganize, is considering shutting down and filing for bankruptcy. An orchestra violinist says the board is considering the idea after a meeting last week: “The bottom line of that meeting was a recommendation that we completely go dark, for a period of no less than six months, and probably more realistically of 12 to 18 months.” The board’s interim chairman denies the plan. San Jose Mercury News 05/13/02

LA SCALA RESTORATION SPARKS CONTROVERSY: “The long-awaited final architectural plan for the restoration of La Scala, which was offically presented to the public and the press at Milan’s city hall on 10 May, has aroused a heated debate… In [the] plan, the depth of the stage and backstage in combination will increase from 48 to 70 meters, thus eliminating the Piccola Scala, an auxiliary venue for chamber opera seating 250. A new new stage tower in the shape of a parallelepiped (a kind of modified cube) will rise 40 meters (the current tower is 35 meters) at the building’s rear facing.” Andante 05/16/02

THE DOCTOR EXPLAINS IT ALL TO YOU: Ever wonder why singers lose their voices with age? “When our vocal cords get saggy, we lose the range of our voice, the ability to hit high notes in particular, and we lose the power of our voice, the ability to project or amplify, which is key for a Pavarotti-type opera singer. As the body changes, ages, the muscles become less strong and the supporting tissues lose their elasticity, and let’s face it, elasticity in the vocal cords is everything. That’s what makes our vocal cords pliable and able to vibrate. When we lose that elasticity we lose the vocal quality we enjoy so much in someone like Pavarotti.” Toronto Star 05/15/02

DEAD FINISHED GONE KAPUT (REALLY): How many Napster’s-finished stories have we run in the last year? But this really really really looks like the end. Like, the CEO and founder both quit this week, and all the workers are about to be set free… soon there won’t be anyone left. Too bad. “Napster and its founder held the promise of everything the new medium of the Internet encompassed: youth, radical change and the free exchange of information. But youthful exuberance would soon give way to reality as the music industry placed a bull’s-eye squarely on Napster.” Wired 05/15/02

BYE BYE CLAUDIO: Claudio Abbado finishes up his tenure as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. “Abbado, allowing himself the capricious wisdom of resigning from his job, has done much for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the past 12 years. How he shaped, changed and promoted it will not be completely assessed until some time has gone by. What has already become clear is that a strong, new post-Herbert von Karajan generation has found its place.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/15/02

Wednesday May 15

GLYNDEBOURNE’S DELICATE BALANCE: The Glyndebourne Festival is about to open another season. It sells out and tickets are difficult to get. Therein lies a problem. “On the one hand, opera ranks as an art form that offers the opportunity to dress up and experience something expensively and exceptionally glamorous; on the other hand, in order to avoid the accusations of elitism (that pretentious modern synonym for snobbery) and sustain its moral claim to public subsidy, opera must also present itself as accessible to all.” But attracting new audiences that aren’t, shall we say, respectful of tradition, is a strain on the old guard… The Telegraph(UK) 05/15/02

ATTACKING THE CONSUMER WHO BUYS YOU: Music companies are embedding ever stronger copy protection into CD’s. One problem – the measures prevent some computers (particularly Macs) from playing the music at all. “CDs manufactured by Sony seem to be the biggest headache. Not only do many discs not play on the Mac, but they cause the machine to lock up and refuse to eject the offending disc.” Wired 05/14/02

FAKE SCORES: Manuscripts said to be newly discovered scores and poetry by Declaration of Independence signer Francis Hopkinson have been withdrawn from sale because they are fakes. “What seemed to be a manuscript for the Revolutionary War oratorio The Temple of Minerva as well as a number of marches, songs and poems by Hopkinson are thought to be the work of an infamous Philadelphia forger, Charles Bates Weisberg, who died in prison in 1945.” Philadelphia Inquirer 05/15/02

GRACELESS ENDING: “By canceling a gala appearance in Puccini’s Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera an hour before curtain Saturday night, Pavarotti has apparently ended his opera career with a singular lack of grace. The 66-year-old tenor has no further opera performances scheduled, and none are expected.” Though he had a marvelous voice, Pavarotti’s lack of curiosity and introspection marred his career. Los Angeles Times 05/15/02

• FAILURE TO APPEAR: Should anyone have been surprised that Pavarotti was a no-show at the Met last weekend? In 1989 the tenor withdrew from a Tosca that Chicago Lyric Opera had essentially created for him. Fed up, the company announced Pavarotti would be banned from the company. By then “Pavarotti had walked away from 26 of his scheduled 41 Lyric performances over nine years. The action earned headlines around the world and the bravos of managerial colleagues who wished they’d had her guts.” Chicago Tribune 05/15/02

Tuesday May 14

ANOTHER REASON NOT TO BUY CELINE: Sony Music has gotten aggressive in its attempts to stop music fans from copying cd’s. The company “has planted a ‘poisoned pellet’ of software in Celine Dion’s latest CD, A New Day Has Come, that is capable of crashing, and in cases permanently freezing, the optical drives of personal computers into which the discs are inserted.” The Age (Melbourne) 05/14/02

I KNOW CARNEGIE HALL, AND THIS AIN’T IT: When Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center opened, officials crowed – “watch out Carnegie Hall.” But the hall wasn’t really ready acoustically then. Six months later, one can venture some better judgments. At least one New York critic still isn’t sold on the comparison. “The Philadelphia Orchestra might have sounded better to me in its new home had I not just heard the same program in Carnegie Hall, where, true to form, the sound of the Brahms was glowing, warm, clear and present without being overwhelming.” The New York Times 05/14/02

JAZZ BY ANY OTHER NAME: Has labeling your music “jazz” become a liability? Some of the most successful jazz artists today have stopped calling their music jazz, trying to sell more recordings. “To some people, jazz is a turn-off,” Part of the problem is that acoustic jazz is mired in the past. Ironically, decades ago, that wasn’t the case.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 05/12/02

Monday May 13

PAVAROTTI MAY HANG IT ALL UP: Following his cancellation at the Met last weekend, Luciano Pavarotti has told an Italian newspaper that he may retire completely from the stage. The tenor, who has eschewed most operatic roles in recent years for arena concerts and gala events, told Corriere della Sera, “It’s the most difficult decision because I don’t know yet if the moment has come or if the crisis of the past few days is down to health problems.” BBC 05/13/02

• PAVAROTTI WRITES TO FANS: After canceling out of a much-anticipated final performance at the Met, Pavarotti has written a letter to his fans. “I am writing, because today I have influenza, a common disease which would mean nothing were I not a tenor. From some of the newspaper reports, it seems almost as if my cancellation were considered something of a betrayal or a weakness, not to show up on that stage and undertake the profession to which I have dedicated almost my entire life.” Toronto Star 05/13/02 
• THE MAN WHO REPLACED THE BIG MAN: The audience had paid as much as $1,800 for their seats. They were all expecting the final performance of one of the great voices of the 20th Century in one of the world’s great opera houses. So when Pavarotti failed to perform Saturday night at the Metropolitan Opera, you had to feel sorry for the tenor brought in to take his place. “Salvatore Licitra, 33, was flown in at the last minute on the Concorde, courtesy of the Met, which was determined to salvage the evening. If this was not to be the farewell of a faded superstar, then at least it would be the starry anointing of a potential successor.” The New York Times 05/13/02
• SO FAR, IT’S UNANIMOUS: A star may have flamed out at the Met this weekend, but so far, all the critics are much more excited about the one that may have been born. “The burly, commanding tenor was having a blast. The voice unfurled effortlessly into Puccini’s vocal lines, with their sun-drenched, rhapsodic lyricism… The voice is quite big. Licitra’s Act II shouts of victory were enough to rearrange your hair.” Philadelphia Inquirer 05/13/02

SAN JOSE BENEFIT MAY GIVE SYMPHONY LIFE: Three benefit concerts have now raised over $169,000 in an effort to save the San Jose Symphony, which severely cut back its schedule and declared a fiscal crisis eight months ago. Clearly, the orchestra has supporters who don’t want to see it vanish, but persistent reports leaking out of the SJS’s musician ranks suggest that the benefit money may be too little, too late, and the orchestra may be near filing for bankruptcy. San Jose Mercury News 05/13/02

OZ LOOKS TO ATTRACT ORCHESTRAS: “It’s been a decade since the world’s great orchestras stopped touring Australia. A handful of ensembles have come for festivals… But the regular visits that once brought orchestras to three or four Australian cities have stopped.” One local arts administrator is looking to reverse the trend. Andante 05/13/02

Sunday May 12

NO MET FINALE FOR PAVAROTTI: Luciano Pavarotti, the 66-year-old tenor who has been rumored for some time to be winding down his career, cancelled his final scheduled appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York this weekend on less than two hours notice, saying he was ill with the flu. Met general manager Joseph Volpe reportedly pleaded with the famed tenor to at least put in an appearance before the sellout crowd, but Pavarotti refused. He had also skipped a performance earlier in the week, prompting a scathing story under the screaming headline “Fat Man Won’t Sing” in the New York Post. Rising young Italian singer Salvatore Licitra stood in, to much acclaim. BBC 05/12/02 & New York Post 05/10/02

WHY NO ONE SINGS ALONG AT SYMPHONY HALL: “Classical music’s advocates in the cultural marketplace must contend with the fact that the clichés of the concert hall are much more familiar than the content of the music itself. Everybody knows them: the pianist’s tails draped over the piano bench, the conductor’s flipping forelock, the orchestra tuning, etc. But when the music starts, I would contend that only a handful of members of the audience have any idea what to expect — or, in the case of Beethoven’s Fifth, know what’s coming after the first few bars.” Is this a failure on the part of educators and performers, or does it speak to the enduringly complex quality of the music? Andante 05/10/02

ALAS, POOR KURT, WE HARDLY KNEW YE (DID WE?): As the New York Philharmonic bids adieu to music director Kurt Masur this month, New York still doesn’t seem to know quite what to make of his tenure with the nation’s second-most-recognizable orchestra. Some called him an autocrat, but the players seem to respect him; others accused him of lacking subtlety, yet few would deny that the Phil sounds better today than it has in years. The bottom line may be that Masur was a music director whom the city took for granted. New York Times 05/12/02

• ONE CRITIC’S ASSESSMENT: John Rockwell of the Times, for one, will miss the maestro: “I cannot claim to have heard every one of Kurt Masur’s 860 New York Philharmonic concerts. I have not even heard his every Philharmonic recording. He is not a close friend. But I do know him in two rather different contexts, journalistic and collegial. I admire him, I think he’s a noble conductor, and I will regret his departure.” New York Times 05/12/02

CARVING OUT A LIVING AMONG THE OLD MASTERS: The conventional wisdom among string-playing musicians is that if you’re not playing on an expensive old instrument, preferably Italian and at least 200 years old, you’re just never going to amount to much. But today’s luthiers would disagree, and some musicians are starting to come around to the idea that a new instrument can have a power and resonance that the old masters never conceived of. One rural fiddlemaker’s experience with the strange and mysterious world of the violin (and viola, cello, and bass as well) may not be typical, but it says much about the future of the industry. Minneapolis Star Tribune 05/12/02

TOSCANINI’S LOVE LETTERS: He defined a generation of conductors with his rages and his passionate performances, but off the podium, Arturo Toscanini was a private man. Still, much has been written of his life, and many writers have spent many pages speculating on his motivations. A new collection of letters, many written to his several mistresses, sheds some fresh light on a legend which has threatened to grow stale in recent years. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/12/02

Friday May 10

LACK OF DISCIPLINE: Should anyone have been surprised that Pavarotti bailed out on short notice of Wednesday night’s performance of Tosca at the Met? “It was only reasonable to doubt that he would sing these performances. Mr. Pavarotti has had one of the indisputably greatest voices in opera history and enjoyed a sensational career. Still, he is 66. Several distinguished tenors with disciplined work habits, like Carlo Bergonzi and Alfredo Kraus, sang strongly into their 60’s. But for at least 15 years, Mr. Pavarotti has been woefully undisciplined.” The New York Times 05/10/02

MASS BAD TASTE: Charles Spencer is all in favor of lists – especially lists that rank pop songs. But this week’s Guinness Poll that ranked Bohemian Rhapsody as the best single of all time…”The poor misguided fools! How could they possibly think that such poncily portentous, sub-operatic claptrap was the greatest single of all time? Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening’ indeed. For goodness sake, you deluded saps, get a grip.” The Telegraph (UK) 05/10/02

SUPER SLAVA: Is Mstislav Rostropovich one of the great cellists in history?  “The former music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., for 17 years has been awarded more than 40 honorary degrees and more than 90 major awards in 25 different countries, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Kennedy Center Honors in the United States.” Christian Science Monitor 05/10/02

Thursday May 9

THE UK’S TOP SONG OF ALL TIME? Don’t read too much into this – polls where people write in to vote aren’t worth much – but here goes. According to the new Guinness Hit Music poll, the most popular single of all time is Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. “The six-minute epic first topped the charts in 1975. It hit the top spot again in 1991 when a fund-raising version was released after the death of the band’s singer Freddie Mercury.” Predictably, according to the 31,000 who voted, four of the top 10 songs of all time are by the Beatles: Hey Jude, Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever, Yesterday and Let It Be. The Guardian (UK) 05/08/02

THE MAHLER MOUNTIES: Early-music puritans drove audiences away with their picky academic concerns about being “authentic,” writes Norman Lebrecht. But new adaptations of Mahler’s unfinished 10th Symphony are something else. “The Mahler Mounties are frontiersmen, pushing out horizons. Rather than bemusing us, their Pooterish proliferation of Mahler Tenths undermines the academic notion of authenticity. It suggests that there is no correct way of reading a dying man’s intentions – and that, in these politically correct times, is no small victory for freedom of thought.” London Evening Standard 05/08/02

NOT A CLUE: Last fall three of the world’s largest music companies finally got online with a music download service. It’s been a big bust. It doesn’t offer as many songs as the free sites, it can’t transfer files efficiently and there have been all sorts of glitches. And for all this you’re supposed to pay. And people aren’t. So now some retooling. “The first offering was too clunky and too consumer unfriendly to hold much hope for its success. So we are going to go back, and we will come out with a 2.0 product which will be more consumer friendly, easy to use. … This is a business of trial and error.” MSNBC (WSJ) 05/08/02

DEATH BY MARGINALIZATION: Is jazz still a potent and evolving art form or has it become a museum piece? With its most popular artists sticking to old times and experimenters marginalized, jazz is none too healthy these days. Maybe the definition of what can be called jazz needs to expand. But the places to try out new jazz is shrinking… San Francisco Weekly 05/08/02

PAVAROTTI BOWS OUT OF MET: So Pavarotti canceled another performance at the Met. Nothing much unusual about that (it was the flu this time). Except that it was his second-to-last scheduled performance there, and he’s not on the schedule next year or thereafter. Some feel he may never appear at the Met again. And expectations for this Saturday’s performance of Tosca are high. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/09/02

• GREAT EXPECTATIONS: “The Met is charging $75 to $1,875 instead of the usual $30 to $265 for Saturday night’s performance, followed by a formal dinner and dance, and is setting up a video screen on Lincoln Center plaza and distributing 3,000 free tickets for a simulcast.” New York Post (AP) 05/09/02

MONTREAL SYMPHONY – GETTING WORSE: Things continue to get worse for the Montreal Symphony. With Charles Dutoit abruptly quitting as music director, the orchestra has been scrambling to find replacement conductors for the rest of this season and all of next. Rostropovich and Ashkenazy have both pulled out of MSO engagements in solidarity with Dutoit, and ticket sales have gone dead. The orchestra finds itself having to reprint all of its season brochures for next year as it reworks its programming (the season had been planned as a celebration of Dutoit’s 25 years with the orchestra. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/09/02

Wednesday May 8

DOWN BUT NOT DIRTY: New Orleans’ Jazz Festival wrapped up ten days of music last weekend. “Over half a million music fans attended the festival. The announced attendance of 501,000 was a sharp drop from last year’s record turnout of 618,000, but with tourism off significantly around the country, Jazzfest more than held its own with what has to be deemed a healthy turnout. In fact, it was the second-largest crowd in the festival’s history.” Nando Times (UPI) 05/07/02

BOMBS COME IN MANY GUISES: A recent production of Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Paris Opera was a bit unconventional. It featured an “Act I ballet with a dancing jellyfish attacked by Greek soldiers and then being comforted by nuzzles from a seahorse. Idomeneo’s sacrifice of his son, Idamante, was foreshadowed by the simulated slaughter of a goat while dancing mermaids provided levity.” And the critics? “Critical reaction was, in some quarters, incredulous. How could this happen in a major opera house? How could a conductor of Ivan Fischer’s caliber have such judgment lapses as a stage director? Didn’t anybody try to tell him?” Andante 05/07/02

MURRAY ADASKIN, 96: Murray Adaskin, one of Canada’s most prominent composers, has died in Victoria at the age of of 96. “Adaskin, born in Toronto to a musical family on March 26, 1906, had a distinguished and varied career that spanned most of the 20th century. One constant was a passion for Canadian culture.” The Times-Colonist (Victoria) 05/08/02

• FOR THE JOY OF MUSIC: “Adaskin was a complete musician. He worked as a violinist, composer, teacher and mentor, and served as an unfailingly good comrade to five generations of colleagues.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/08/02

DIVA DREAMS: Soprano Joan Sutherland is 75. “It’s nice to be remembered. But the whole opera thing has changed from top to bottom. It has all changed. Even the way that the productions are geared. I’m glad I finished when I did. I might have done a few walkouts.” Did she ever think about singing again? “Only once since 1990 has Sutherland thought to let it rip one last time. A year or two after her retirement, her husband was flying home from Canada and ‘I decided to surprise him’. But after a day’s strenuous vocal exercises she found herself coughing and choking. ‘So then I really did give up’.” The Guardian (UK) 05/08/02

Tuesday May 7

WE’RE LISTENING: A new study of who listens to classical music shows a broad listenership. “Nearly 60 percent of 2,200 adults polled at random said they have some interest in classical music, and about 27 percent make classical music a part of their lives ‘pretty regularly,’ according to a study commissioned by the foundation. Nationally, 17 percent said they attended some kind of classical-music concert in the previous year. About 18 percent listen to classical music on the radio daily or several times each week.” Philadelphia Inquirer 05/07/02

COLOSSEUM CONCERT: Rome’s Colosseum is to stage its first concert in 200 years. Ray Charles is “headlining Time for Life on 11 May, an event dedicated to promoting global harmony. He will be joined by artists from around the world including Algerian pop star Khaled and Argentina’s Mercedes Sosa.” BBC 05/07/02

GOT THE BUZZ: Software writers have developed a program that performs improvised jazz that musicians can use to accompany themselves. “A team at University College London has written a program that mimics insect swarming to ‘fly around’ the sequence of notes the musician is playing and improvise a related tune of its own. Their software works by treating music as a type of 3D space, in which the dimensions are pitch, loudness and note duration. As the musician plays, a swarm of digital ‘particles’ immediately starts to buzz around the notes being played in this space – in the same way that bees behave when they are seeking out pollen.” New Scientist 05/07/02

DETROIT’S NEXT MAESTRO? Neeme Jarvi has announced he’ll leave his job as music director of the Detroit Symphony. Who might succeed him? “Handicapping the field is folly, but some names are obvious: Frenchman Yan Pascal Tortelier has been one of the DSO’s most vital guest conductors in recent seasons. Finnish conductor Leif Segerstam developed a close rapport with DSO when he subbed for an ailing Jarvi on last fall’s European tour, though one wonders how his eccentricities would play if he were music director. Young American Alan Gilbert made an impressive debut with the DSO in 2000. More experienced Americans who deserve a look include David Robertson, Kent Nagano and Marin Alsop.” Detroit Free Press 05/05/02

FIRST COUPLE: Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu are opera’s star couple. Married in real life, they also collaborate onstage. But the nicknames of “the world’s greatest French tenor and the most celebrated of its young sopranos are not affectionate. They include ‘the Ceausescus’, while director Jonathan Miller famously nicknamed them ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ after Alagna failed to turn up for some rehearsals of his production of La Boheme at the Bastille opera in Paris. The Bastille also dubbed the Romanian-born Gheorghiu ‘La Draculette’.” The Telegraph (UK) 05/07/02

Monday May 6

DIGITAL DOWNLOADING HELPS MUSIC SALES: A new report says that experienced digital music downloaders are 75 percent more inclined to buy music than the average online music fan. “This shows that while the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) continue to scapegoat file sharing for their problems, all reasonable analysis shows that file sharing is a net positive for the music industry.” Wired 05/05/02

THE PROGRESSIVE: “Does music (or any other art) really move forward? Yes, it changes, as time moves on. But can we really call those changes progress? What would progress be, anyway? Which aspect of art would be progressing?” If you allow for the idea of progress, “then why won’t sophisticates lose interest in anything earlier? Why won’t Mozart sound too simple, once you’ve heard Brahms? Why won’t Brahms himself sound too simple after we’ve heard Schoenberg?” NewMusicBox 05/02

SUMMING UP MASUR: Kurt Masur is finishing up his last few weeks as music director of the New York Philharmonic. “The Masur decade sometimes seems like a barrier island, a sandy, pleasant enough strip of beach between relief and anticipation. All this is very unfair. Masur’s tenure was not only full of musical accomplishments, it produced some genuine New York City rowdiness of its own. If Masur did his part in raising the orchestra’s sense of dignity and common purpose, he did so by an odd mix of old-school tyranny and democratic participation.” Newsday 05/05/02

• BUILDING A LEGACY: Christoph von Dohnanyi is in his final month as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra. He’s “had the artistic time of his life in Cleveland, where he achieved remarkable things: uncommon ensemble finesse, arresting performances, adventurous programs, distinguished recordings, a gleaming Severance Hall renovation. Along the way, the Berlin-born conductor experienced a few scuffles with management over artistic control, and he saw his ambitious project to record and to perform Wagner’s four-work Ring cycle aborted after the first two operas because of the collapse of the classical recording industry.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/05/02

SVETLANOV, DEAD AT 73: Yevgeny Svetlanov, one of Soviet Russia’s most-enduring conductors, has died at the age of 73. Russian president Vladimir Putin “wrote in a message to Svetlanov’s wife, Nina, that the musician’s death was an ‘irreplacable loss for all of our culture’.” Two years ago Svetlanov was “dismissed from his post conducting the State Symphony Orchestra after Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi said he was spending too much time conducting overseas.” Yahoo News (AP) 05/05/02

Sunday May 5

LATIN UPBEAT: The Latin music recording industry gathers in Miami this week. While CD sales for all kinds of music slipped six percent last year in the US “sales of Latin CDs rose 9 percent and the Latin music market overall grew 6 percent, to $642 million, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.” The industry is meeting to figure out how to keep up the momentum. Miami Herald 05/05/02

NOT FADE AWAY: Older Canadian composers are feeling ignored and neglected by “a younger generation of composers, and by changes in the Canadian cultural ecology.” They know it’s nothing personal, that “each new generation has to fight for its own space.” But “with oblivion staring them in the face, the old guard knew it had to fight or fade” so they staged an assault on the CBC. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/04/02

ALL ABOUT PEOPLE: The Tokyo String Quartet once was considered one of the top two or three quartets in the world. But personnel changes changed the group’s character and then its fortunes. Now a young Canadian violinist joins after a turbulent few years. “Martin Beaver will replace Mikhail Kopelman as first violinist after a period of artistic differences if not conflict.” Can the Tokyo regain its lustre? The New York Times 05/05/02

CRITICAL AFTERLIFE: Will Crutchfield was a music critic – and a good one – when he quit the New York Times in the mid-90s to conduct opera. Now he’s got a serious career on the podium. “Singers Crutchfield once reviewed seemed either not to remember he was a critic or were ‘nice enough not to say anything if they had any animosity – or they arranged not to be working with me. If any singer had a right to be irritated with me, it was Placido Domingo. As a critic I would sometimes use him as an example of certain technical things in modern tenor singing that I would like to see different. Domingo nonetheless invited Crutchfield to conduct at the Washington Opera.” Miami Herald 05/05/02

Friday May 3

SAFETY NET: The English National Opera had a disastrous season, which translated into a deficit. “The company, battling to redress its deficits, had been accused of peddling an ‘alarming series of flops’ and losing its artistic way, following the scandalised reception of a production of Verdi’s A Masked Ball, which featured anal rape, chorus singers on toilets, simulated sex and masturbation.” So in putting together its next season the company has burrowed into the core repertoire and come up with some crowd-pleasers. The Guardian (UK) 05/01/02

BRITPOP HAS LOST ITS WAY: British pop music, which once dominated American Top Ten charts, has dropped off the American map altogether. Things are so bad, the Brits are even opening an office in New York to promote their music. Won’t help, says American critic John Pareles. “British rock has lost its willingness to face the present or interact with the outside world.” The Guardian (UK) 05/03/02

OPERA IN A BURNED OUT THEATRE: Lima, Peru’s main Municipal Theatre burned down in 1998. “But that hasn’t kept the charred opera house from becoming one of the smartest places in town for shows and celebrations. Plays, concerts and musical revues usually sell out, with patrons filling the folding chairs that line the once-carpeted concrete ground floor and balconies.” Los Angeles Times (AP) 05/03/02

JARVI QUITS DETROIT: Neeme Jarvi, 64, has decided to step down as music director of the Detroit Symphony at the close of the 2004-05 season, leaving a 15-year legacy that will be remembered as one of the orchestra’s most important eras. Jarvi – who says he has fully recovered from the ruptured blood vessel he suffered at the base of his brain last July – announced his plans to the orchestra at Thursday’s rehearsal at Orchestra Hall.” Detroit Free Press 05/03/02

HEPPNER RE-EMERGES: Tenor Ben Heppner has been a major star in the past decade. But when he walked out of a recital in Toronto a few months ago, then canceled the rest of his North American tour, he left critics whispering that he was having some major problems with his voice. Perhaps the kind of problems that could end a career. His concert in Seattle this week leaves some of those questions unanswered. “His formal program was only about an hour. He sang few fortissimos and a handful of fortes. High notes were at a strict minimum, and there were few technical challenges. The musical ones were substantial. Good sense dictated those terms. And even at that, there were some tiny, tiny breaks in the voice, an indication he is still not wholly recovered.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer 05/02/02

Thursday May 2

NOT JUST DUMB BABES: The OperaBabes are “classically trained opera singers who ended up busking in Covent Garden as they attempted to make some cash to pay for extra singing lessons. However, their burgeoning classical careers came to a juddering halt when they were spotted by a talent scout and asked to sing live to millions of people at the FA Cup Final, and then the Champions League final, last year. This was a huge success, and launched the duo into a new world of recording contracts, big name concerts, photo sessions, new clothes and into the clutches of Des Lynam – their number one celebrity fan. What is absolutely indisputable, is that the OperaBabes are the latest example of what opera stalwart Sir Thomas Allen would call the dumbing down of classical music. ” The Telegraph (UK) 05/02/02

CASUAL INTEREST? The Los Angeles Philharmonic has started a “Casual Fridays” series in which everyone (including musicians) attends in street clothes. The concerts are short and meant to be as informal as possible. Fine – but “with music programs cut back in high schools, too many students have little or no knowledge of classical music. And there’s the widespread perception that I encountered among the friends I lured to performances that classical concerts are boring.” Los Angeles Times 05/01/02

BOLSHOI ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY: “After almost a decade of turmoil, uncertainty and artistic decline, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater seems on the road to recovery. The theater, which houses both a ballet and opera company under its venerable roof, has a newly reorganized leadership team and has released plans for an ambitious new season. But soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, a legendary figure at the theater until she left for the West in 1974, says that far more drastic changes are required.” Andante 05/02/02

DON’T JUDGE A CELLIST BY HER COVER: A new album of little-known works by established “dead white guy” composers might not sound like the future of the classical recording industry. But Sony has taken an interesting approach to the release, which features Canadian cellist Denise Djokic: the presentation, from the cover art to the marketing of the star, is pure MTV, while the content is real, serious music by a rising young talent. Could it be that the industry has found a way to do “crossover” without driving away serious fans of classical music? The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/02/02

STREAMING MEANIES: The debate over how musicians and recording companies should be compensated for streaming webcasts of their music continues to grow louder, and the two sides could not be farther apart. Webcasters claim that the current law, set to take effect May 21 of this year, will effectively shut down the webcasting industry with its high royalty payments. The music industry’s position is that it doesn’t care what happens to the utopian webcasters, and if they want to distribute the music to a worldwide audience, they’ll have to find a way to pay for the privilege. Wired 05/02/02

Wednesday May 1

DUTOIT THANKS THE FANS: In an open letter to the concertgoing public of Montreal, recently resigned Montreal Symphony music director Charles Dutoit reminisces about his quarter-century of music-making in the city, and thanks his fans and supporters among the public, saying “My gratitude to Montrealers is as intense as it is deep.” The letter makes no mention of the events which led Dutoit to resign from his position last month. Montreal Gazette 05/01/02

BUFFALO STAMPEDE DELAYED: The Buffalo Philhamonic Orchestra, which had planned to move its offices to an old mansion the group recently purchased, has announced that the plan will be delayed, after fund-raising for renovations hit a snag. The mansion needs $45,000 in repairs and restoration just to get up to code, and the BPO is not saying when the move might happen. Buffalo Business First 04/29/02

L.A. MUSIC CENTER HEAD RESIGNS: “The head of the Los Angeles County Music Center announced her resignation Monday, saying the center is ‘structurally sound’ and ripe for new theatrical leadership. Joanne Kozberg, president and chief operating officer of the downtown arts megaplex, said she will serve until the center secures her replacement. Music Center officials say they plan to conduct a nationwide search for a new president.” Andante (Los Angeles Daily News) 05/01/02

ABBADO LEAVES BERLIN: Claudio Abbado conducts his final concert as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. His tenure after the storied Karajan years “led to fluctuations within the orchestra and the taciturn Milanese, who was never a big one for rehearsals, had a rather lax style that did not always meet with universal enthusiasm. By and large, however, the choice of Abbado can be viewed as fortuitous, especially as he proved himself to be by far the most open-minded of the world’s top conductors.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 04/30/02

Tuesday April 30

A CRY FOR REFORM: Sir Thomas Allen, one of England’s leading opera singers, has lashed out at the malaise of the classical music business. “New composers are not being heard. Commissions are not being given out in the way they should be. How many performances of Beethoven’s Fifth do you need? How many of Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony? The Independent (UK) 04/29/02

NEW BATON IN INDIANAPOLIS: Mario Venzago has been appointed music director of the Indianapolis Symphony. Venzago is director of the Basel Symphony in Switzerland. He “recently accepted an engagement as principal guest conductor of Sweden’s Malmo Symphony Orchestra. This summer will be his third as artistic director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Summer MusicFest. He also has an active free-lance career in Europe and, increasingly, with American ensembles such as the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Venzago will succeed Raymond Leppard, who announced in 1998 that he would resign at the end of the orchestra’s 2000-01 season.” Indianapolis Star 04/29/02

HEY JUDE – NO SALE: Paul McCartney won a court injunction to stop the auction of the original manuscript of Hey Jude. The current owner bought it in a London street market in the early 70s, but McCartney says the paper was taken from his house. New York Post (Reuters) 04/30/02

SUCCEEDING THE LONE RANGER: The Grammys are on the hunt for a new leader after the resignation of longtime head Michael Greene. “Greene ran the Grammys like a one-man band, wielding power over a Hollywood award like no one other person in showbiz history. Today, that’s rare in an industry run by committee.” Nando Times (AP) 04/30/02

Monday April 29

GRAMMY PRESIDENT FORCED TO QUIT: Micahel Greene, who, as president of the Grammys for 14 years, became one of the “most powerful and controversial figures in the music industry” has been forced out of the job. “Greene’s resignation as president took place during an emergency board meeting at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to discuss a sexual harassment probe commissioned by the Grammy organization, the sources said.” Los Angeles Times 04/28/02

• CLEARED OF CHARGES: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences release a statement saying Greene was cleared of sexual misconduct, but does not say why Greene is leaving. “A full and fair investigation of alleged misconduct by Mike was completed and it revealed no sexual harassment, no sex discrimination and no hostile work environment at the recording academy.” Nando Times (AP) 04/28/02
• DIFFICULT PERSONALITY: “He was praised by some in the industry as an ambitious executive who played a large part in elevating the Grammys’ glamour, prestige and high profile, while expanding the academy’s membership, outreach, philanthropy and community involvement. But others within and outside the organization found fault with his sometimes abrasive personal style, which had a negative impact on the academy, as Mr. Greene himself has admitted.” The New York Times 04/29/02

WOLFGANG – NEVER COUNT HIM OUT: So you thought the epic battles for control of the Bayreuth Festival were done and the aged and notorious Wolfgang Wagner vanquished? Think again. “Those who have fought to follow the near-interminable struggle for control of the festival among the pugnacious descendants of the master (as some zealots still call Richard Wagner) may gape to learn that Wolfgang is still able to laugh at all.” But a new Wolfgang-led power base may be forming… The Economist 04/26/02

KC MUSIC DIRECTOR LEAVING: Kansas City Symphony music director Anne Manson has announced she will leave the orchestra. “Manson, 39, has been music director since 1999. She was one of the few women to head an American orchestra of notable size.” St. Louis Post Dispatch 04/28/02

DUTOIT WITHDRAWAL: So many questions for the Montreal Symphony now that longtime music director Charles Dutoit is gone. Will the orchestra’s best players (many of them loyal Dutoit supporters) stay with the orchestra or jump to higher paying US bands? Will the musicians union face a revolt over its handling of the affair? And who will be the orchestra’s next music director? Montreal Gazette 04/27/02

Sunday April 28

MUSICIAN ABUSE: Tyrant conductors are notorious – both for their tempers and (often) for their impressive results. But “over the last 30 years, as unionized North American orchestral musicians fought successfully for good pay, reasonable working conditions and more say in artistic matters, the autocratic conductor became increasingly outmoded. Or so it seemed until the recent blowup at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.” Once musicians in Montreal began talking, they sounded like battered spouses… The New York Times 04/28/02

ON THE SILK ROAD: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s project in international musical exploration is ambitious. “By the time it runs out of money next year, the Silk Road Project will have sponsored concerts, festivals, dance performances, workshops, conferences, Web sites, art exhibits and school curriculums in North America, Europe, the Far East, the Near East and Central Asia. The Silk Road Ensemble, led by Mr. Ma and embracing such virtuosos as the Iranian spike-fiddler Kayhan Kalhor and the Chinese pipa player Wu Man, will have performed (or at least run through) commissioned works by composers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. And the Smithsonian Institution will, for the first time in its history, have devoted an entire Folklife Festival to a single theme, the Silk Road.” The New York Times 04/28/02

PART OF THE PERFORMANCE: Mikel Rouse’s opera Dennis Cleveland makes for a suspicious audience. “You’re listening in the audience, and suddenly Mr. Rouse, playing the talk-show host, walks up and sticks the microphone in the face of the person next to you, who stands up and sings. Pretty soon you’re looking at all your neighbors with suspicion: did they pay to see the show, or are they in the cast? You might even start to fear that Mr. Rouse/Dennis will stick the mike in your face, and you’ll have to come up with a story for the folks.” The New York Times 04/28/02

Friday April 26

ASKING HELP TO FIGHT PIRACY: The recording industry is asking for tax money to fight digital piracy. “In a congressional hearing Tuesday before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, the RIAA requested additional funds for federal anti-piracy law enforcement efforts and is pushing for a renewed agenda on protecting intellectual property.” ZDNet 04/25/02 

Thursday April 25

THE BEST ARTS PRIZE IN THE WORLD? Michigan’s Gilmore Award for pianists just might be the best prize in all of the arts. Artists don’t even know they’re being considered for it, when suddenly the lucky winner is informed he or she has won $300,000. Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski (On-der-shev-ski) is this year’s winner and will receive “$50,000 in cash and $250,000 for any career-related projects, such as purchasing a new piano, commissioning new music or a recording project.” Detroit Free Press 04/25/02

ORCHESTRAS OF VALUE: Over the past few months, the BBC and Classic FM have been signing exclusive deals with orchestras. The substance of these contracts does not always withstand daylight scrutiny, but the gestural value alone is enough to put heart into ailing orchestras – and the strategic shift at the heart of classical broadcasting is almost enough to take one’s breath away. For the first time in a generation, orchestras are being pursued as genuine objects of value.” London Evening Standard 04/24/02

CLASSICAL BRIT NOMINEES: Singer Cecilia Bartoli leads the nominations for this year’s Classical Brit Awards. “Bartoli was nominated in three categories at a ceremony in central London on Wednesday, including best female artist, the critics award and best album for Gluck, Italian Arias.” BBC 04/24/02

• A LIST OF THE NOMINEES

A CAPPELLA MADNESS: Okay, so it’s not like being a starter on a Division I football team, but being a member of a college a cappella group is fast becoming a prestige position on American campuses. Once the purview of barbershop quartet refugees and general music dorks, a cappella groups are springing up all over, and their work is of a caliber that might surprise the casual observer. The New York Times 04/25/02

WONG DEFENDS HIS RECORD: Samuel Wong has been embroiled in controversy ever since taking the reins at the Hong Kong Philharmonic, with musicians and reporters alternately claiming that he’s a dictator and that he has no control. But Wong refuses to be a pessimist, and says he still enjoys the orchestra: “Hong Kong is a model for symphony orchestras around the world. We have a recording contract, we tour, we have regular TV and radio broadcasts, the government gives us US$9 million a year, we do adventuresome programming, we do children’s concerts, outreach, we play at a high standard. So if there is noise and friction, let there be. I don’t welcome it, but if that’s the cost, I’ll accept it.” Andante 04/25/02

Wednesday April 24

BERLIN ON A HIGH: In anticipation of Simon Rattle’s arrival as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic, the orchestra has sold out next season’s season tickets. And there’s a four-year waiting list… To say expectations are high is an understatement…  Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 04/23/02

CHINA’S NATIONAL S.O. FIRES CONDUCTOR: “The China National Symphony Orchestra has officially removed Tang Muhai as its artistic director, more than six months after the 53-year old maestro angrily left Beijing… Also discharged was the orchestra’s deputy chief executive, Qian Cheng, a Tang supporter who manages the two largest concert halls in Beijing as well as one in Nanjing.” Andante 04/24/02

BRITS DROP OUT OF U.S.: For the first time in 38 years there are no British songs on the US Top 100 charts. By comparison “in April 1964 the Beatles held all of the top five positions and exactly 20 years later there were 40 UK singles in the top 100.” BBC 04/23/02

MARK ERMLER’S LEGACY: Conductor Mark Ermler died last week at age 69 after collapsing on the podium in front of the Seoul Philharmonic. “He will be remembered in Russia chiefly for a host of distinguished opera and ballet performances at the Bolshoi – with a prolific discography to match – and, in Britain, for returning the music of the Tchaikovsky ballets to centre-stage at Covent Garden.” The Guardian (UK) 04/23/02

OUE TO OSAKA: Minnesota Orchestra music director Eiji Oue, who will leave Minneapolis at the end of this season, has accepted the music director position at the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra in his native Japan. Oue is fully fifty years younger than the legendary conductor he replaces, Takashi Asahina, who passed away at age 93 last winter. Minneapolis Star Tribune 04/24/02

Tuesday April 23

MUSICIANS TO JUDGE – RECORDING COMPANIES DON”T REPRESENT OUR INTERESTS: Some musicians charge that recording companies don’t pay royalties owed them. “The record companies’ representation that they are legitimate agents for their artists is false. The only payments they make are to those who have the means to force them to be accountable; to the rest, a vast majority, they pay nothing. Therefore, allowing them to collect fees in our behalf does not serve the public interest. I personally would prefer to allow my music to be freely shared, to the present situation, in which only the corporations stand to gain. Until this is changed, the record companies and publishers deserve nothing.” Salon 04/23/02

TORONTO CELLIST SETTLES WITH ORCHESTRA: Toronto Symphony cellist Daniel Domb has “withdrawn a defamation lawsuit against the TSO and its former executive director, Edward Smith, in exchange for a cash settlement of an undisclosed amount. In addition, the TSO has agreed to schedule a farewell concert for Domb during the 2003-2004 season, during which Domb will appear as a soloist.” Domb had been in a dispute with the orchestra “that began last May when Smith tried to fire Domb while he was recovering from near-fatal head injuries.” Toronto Star 04/20/02

SAVING SAN JOSE: The San Jose Symphony, which shut down last fall with money problems, is working to reorganize. In January, “in an effort to save the debt-ridden symphony from filing for bankruptcy,” the orchestra’s musicians “agreed to forgo payment for this season’s contract.” But the players are upset that their conductor Leonid Grin didn’t make a similar offer. The orchestra is starting to lose players. “The orchestra is going on faith that we will come back. But the longer we are out of work, the less we can financially afford to stick around. A couple have already left. Some are studying for other careers. Others are taking auditions.” San Jose Mercury News 04/23/02

MONEY WOES FORCE USE OF HOMEGROWN TALENT: Argentine opera companies have long depended on international stars to populate their well-regarded productions. But the country’s financial crises has forced the companies to use local talent they had formerly rejected. And the reviews haven’t been bad… Andante 04/23/02

GARRISON KEILLOR OPERA: Garrison Keillor has written an opera, which is set to premiere in May in St. Paul, Minnesota. The story: “Mr. and Mrs. Olson is the story of a marriage searching for romance. Norman Olson is a taxman, and his wife, Karen, teaches 10th grade English. They live in St. Paul.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 04/23/02

Monday April 22

WHY CLASSICAL RADIO MATTERS: “Americans have always depended on public radio to educate, inform and enrich listeners” write cellist David Finckle and pianist Wu Han. “In our travels as musicians, we hear the same story all too often: A city used to have classical music radio, but the station was bought — or polled its listeners with an eye toward ‘better’ demographics — and has switched to talk or to popular music formats. Great music on the radio is in dangerously short supply these days; in some places it has been abandoned altogether.” The New York Times 04/20/02

TREE RETURNS AS INSTRUMENT: Years ago lightning killed a pine tree at the Interlochen Music School. “The wood of the old-growth tree was saved, cured and shaped into a new work of art – and on Thursday it returned to the place where it grew.” It returned as a double bass played on campus by a student. Traverse City Record-Eagle 04/19/02

Sunday April 21

SLAVA SENDS A MESSAGE: Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, one of the most beloved icons of the classical music world, has announced that he will boycott the Montreal Symphony Orchestra next season in protest of the virtual ouster of music director Charles Dutoit. Rostropovich had been scheduled to conduct the MSO in January 2003. Montreal Gazette 04/20/02

ROME GETS A MEGA-HALL… “Rome on Sunday will inaugurate the largest concert hall complex in Europe – three separate theaters centered around an open-air arena designed by famed architect Renzo Piano. The $140 million project, one of the largest undertaken in Rome since World War II, will give the Eternal City its first major-league auditorium. It will be used to showcase chamber music, opera, contemporary music, theater, ballet, and symphonic performances.” Nando Times (AP) 04/20/02

• …WITH MEGA-PROBLEMS: No one would deny that it’s about time Rome got a decent concert hall. But the new Music Park has been a typically Italian fiasco from beginning to end: a controversial (some would say bizarre) design, a series of cost overruns, and lack of any sort of urgency to finish the thing have resulted in an embarrassing disaster of an opener, in which almost none of the complex will be completed. The Times of London 04/19/02

CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME: Toronto’s much-maligned Roy Thomson Hall is undergoing a complete overhaul, and no part of the job could possibly be as challenging as the part assigned to acoustician Russell Johnson. Johnson is supposed to fix the sound quality of a concert hall widely believed to be the world’s worst acoustic building ever to play host to a major symphony orchestra. The original architect is not happy about it, but everyone else seems to think Johnson is the last, best hope for the hall. National Post (Canada) 04/20/02

THE GOLDEN AGE OF OPERA? “In all of Canada, back in the 1930s, there wasn’t a single permanent [opera] company regularly peddling Giacomo Puccini and Richard Wagner. And in the United States, the situation wasn’t a great deal better. Today? Opera America… embraces 117 professional companies in 45 states and 19 more in five provinces, and those companies are not the only ones currently active.” Toronto Star 04/20/02

ORCHESTRAS (FINALLY) DISCOVER THE INTERNET: It’s been nearly a decade since online information became a crucial aspect of American life, which means it ought to be just about time for American orchestras (always the land tortoises of marketing in the arts world) to discover that they might be able to use the internet to their advantage. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra “retooled its Web site in August 2000, in part to boost its online ticket sales. Since then orchestra officials said the group quadrupled its online ticket sales… Other U.S. orchestras are reporting similar gains.” Chicago Tribune 04/21/02

INTERESTED, BUT NOT THAT INTERESTED: A new study by the sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation finds that, while nearly a third of American adults profess to be “interested” in classical music enough to listen to it regularly, only 5% go to live concerts. The study does not say how many of the “interested” adults were doing their regular listening while standing in an elevator. Andante 04/21/02

BEST OF TIMES IN FORT WORTH: It’s not easy being the smaller of a pair of cities. Just ask Oakland, Saint Paul, or Fort Worth, languishing in the shadows of San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Dallas, respectively. But Fort Worth, Texas, has always prided itself on being the real cultural gem of the Metroplex, and these days, it has the musical quality to back up the claim. In the last few years, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Fort Worth Opera have undergone dramatic upgrades in quality, with a new concert hall leading the way. Dallas Morning News 04/21/02

LOOKING BACK (AND FORWARD) IN MINNEAPOLIS: When the Minnesota Orchestra selected Eiji Oue as its ninth music director back in 1993, the music world responded with a collective “Who?” Seven years later, the Oue era in Minneapolis (which comes to an end next month) is hard to assess: few would deny that the orchestra sounds better than it did when he arrived, but some have accused him of lacking discipline and being too much of a showman. Minneapolis Star Tribune 04/21/02

• WHAT THE MUSICIANS THINK: Montreal’s current scandal aside, it’s rare for orchestral musicians to let their opinions on a given conductor be publicly known, for obvious reasons. But with Eiji Oue preparing to conduct his final concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra, three principal players give their analysis of the impact that Oue and his predecessor, Edo deWaart, had on the music, the musicians, and the organization. Minneapolis Star Tribune 04/21/02

PITTSBURGH PARTNERSHIP TO END: “Two years ago this month, Carnegie Mellon University and Opera Theater of Pittsburgh embarked on a experiment to be the only school and opera company in the United States with an official collaboration… Yesterday, CMU announced that it would not renew the agreement after it runs out in June.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 04/19/02

THE NEW THREAT: With Napster shut down, and other illegal music-downloading services effectively contained, the recording industry is training its sights on what it views to be the latest threat to its existence: CD burning. “For decades, people have made cassette recordings for friends. But record-label representatives say that home taping was never as prevalent as CD burning, mainly because blank tapes cost up to eight times what you now pay for blank CDs. Also, the sound depreciated every time you made another copy. Not so in the digital age, when immaculate-sounding copies can be made every time.” Boston Globe 04/21/02

MAKING OPERA FUN, OR RUINING IT? “There is nothing anodyne about Richard Jones. His work, indeed his very personality, is unflinching, intense and often deeply witty. Over a 20-year career directing opera and theatre, he has been responsible for some of the stage’s most talked-about images: latex-clad Rhinemaidens inflated to the proportions of Michelin men at the Royal Opera House; a tyrannosaurus rex towering over Ann Murray’s Julius Caesar at the Staatsoper, Munich; a Ballo In Maschera in Bregenz in which a reclining skeleton, 32 metres high, clutched a vast open book that formed a stage floating on a lake.” The Guardian (UK) 04/20/02

STRAYHORN GETS HIS DUE: “Until recently, the great jazz composer Billy Strayhorn, who died in 1967, endured a strange kind of obscurity. Many knew that he joined Duke Ellington in 1939, that he was partly responsible for the explosion of first-class music to come from the band in the early 1940’s and that he collaborated with Ellington on some of his suites in the 1960’s. Strayhorn was not invisible, but the quality of his contribution was largely misunderstood.” The New York Times 04/21/02

Friday April 19

BYE BYE DUTOIT: The Montreal Symphony has finally accepted Charles Dutoit’s resignation from the orchestra and says it will begin a search for his successor. “The announcement came the day after the musicians voted on a resolution to invite Dutoit back. The results of that vote were not revealed and there was no indication that they would be. It was also unclear at the time of the vote whether the resolution would have any effect on Dutoit.” Andante 04/18/02

THE CALLAS MOVIE: For years Franco Zeffirelli refused to make a movie about Maria Callas, whom he knew well. Now he’s filming a movie about the singer’s last four months. “At the beginning, I didn’t want to hear about it. I refused out of respect. For Maria. Now Callas is an icon, she is beyond passions, beyond relationships, beyond time. I thought the moment was right to do something, to remind people what she was, not just a voice that we can buy for $10. I want people to know that behind this incredible voice there was the person and what kind of person.” The Guardian (UK) 04/19/02

TRAILBLAZER: Marin Alsop has probably accomplished more than any other female conductor. “How big a role I’ve played in [blazing a trail for other women] I’m not certain,” Alsop says. “But I’m always very happy when young women [today] who are interested in the field think [being a woman is] a nonissue.” Christian Science Monitor 04/19/02

Thursday April 18

ORCHESTRA FIGHT: Montreal Symphony musicians’ public fight with music director Charles Dutoit has deeply divided the orchestra. “People in the musical world said musicians of major orchestras have almost never risen up publicly against a world-renowned conductor over his management style. The action has divided the orchestra’s members and caused many of them to lose sleep, they said.” The New York Times 04/18/02

• THE LATEST FROM MONTREAL: As the MSO continues to waver on what to do next, its musicians are voting on whether or not to support a resolution asking Dutoit to return. But in “a development that can be interpreted as a victory for the anti-Dutoit camp, principal flute Tim Hutchins, a player widely perceived to be loyal to the conductor, resigned as chairman of the orchestra committee, a group of musicians who deal with internal affairs.” Montreal Gazette 04/18/02

RECORD PRODUCERS TO BLAME FOR DOWNTURN? Recording industry execs blame last year’s five percent decline in sales on digital file trading. “But critics of the recording industry say that by treating their consumers as thieves – oftentimes before any legitimate business alternative was offered – millions of people have turned their backs on the music industry. They have voted with their computers – flocking to technologies that allow them to download music whenever they want, move it into any portable device, and share it with their friends.” Wired 04/17/02

THE DISAPPEARING CONTROVERSY: Peter Konwitschny is known in Europe for his controversial opera productions and provocative staging decisions. But many Dresden concertgoers were unprepared for the intense war imagery that dominated a State Opera production of Emmerich Kálmán’s Die Csárdásfürstin, and the company eliminated the offending scenes. But Konwitschny sued, and a court ruled that the company didn’t have the right to make cuts. Now, the production has quietly been yanked completely. Andante 04/18/02

STUDY – DIGITAL HELPS NEW ARTISTS: It’s tough to be a big pop star these days. But better if you’re a newcomer. A new study of Billboard charts finds that “the number of artists who appeared each year on the charts increased by 31.5 percent from 1991 to 2000, suggesting that more new artists are hitting the charts, at the expense of established musical acts. The biggest change occurred from 1998 to 2000, when the number of fresh faces making the Billboard 200 increased 10 percent.” San Francisco Chronicle (WP) 04/17/02

ANOTHER ORCHESTRA UPRISING: The musicians of Spain’s Orquesta Nacional are mounting what they call a “work-to-rules” strike, which amounts to a refusal to play more rehearsals than are called for in their contract. They want the government, which controls the orchestra, to address their concerns over, among other things, dubious hiring practices. But the action isn’t sitting well with the orchestra’s audiences, who shouted insults at the players before a recent concert. Andante (El Mundo) 04/18/02

THREE DECADES, ONE MAN, AND A THOUSAND ‘EXPERTS’: When Seiji Ozawa conducts the Boston Symphony for the last time as its music director this weekend, an era will come to a close, but chances are that the second guessing and armchair criticism won’t. One Boston critic thinks the maestro may have gotten an unfair shake. “I’ve often wondered why Ozawa didn’t head for Europe long ago. He’s far more respected there, in part because sophisticated music-making is still considered the most important quality of a conductor there. In America, administrative ability and presenting a jolly face to the public – including participation in humiliating photo ops – seem to count for more in a music director.” Boston Herald 04/18/02

YUCK. AND DOUBLE YUCK: Everyone knows that rock stars have the best (and the most) sex, right? Wrong. For sheer audacity of approach and ability to select partners more or less at will, no one beats the world’s great conductors. Need evidence? “Sir Georg Solti, weeks before his death in 1997, discussed sex… as an active combatant. He was 84.” La Scena Musicale 04/17/02

ANOTHER PIANO COMPETITION, YAWWWN: The London International Piano Competition concluded Monday night. And as usual, the wrong pianist won. Oh, well, that’s the way competitions go these days… London Evening Standard 04/17/02

Wednesday April 17

VONK TO QUIT ST. LOUIS: St. Louis Symphony music director Hans Vonk, who had to stop midway through a performance in February because of illness, is stepping down. “Vonk will remain with the organization but in a dramatically reduced role, Symphony management told the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday. He will conduct just two weeks a year for the remaining three years of his contract and may advise the organization on artistic matters.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 04/17/02

MEANWHILE IN MONTREAL… Musicians of the Montreal Symphony are to vote tonight on whether to ask music director Charles Dutoit to return to the orchestra. Evidently Dutoit might rejoin the MSO if enough players vote for his return. But how many players will it take. Certainly not just a simple majority. And Dutoit has already canceled his next appearances with the orchestra; a substitute has been hired. Montreal Gazette 04/17/02

BAD MUSIC OR PIRACY? Worldwide recorded music sales were down five percent in 2001. “Plagued by pirate websites and growing use of technology which allows music lovers to burn tracks on to CDs, legitimate sales fell across the world’s biggest markets including America, Germany and Japan. Experts believe the growth of internet download sites has been such that one in every three recordings sold around the world is now illegal, costing the industry £2.9bn a year.” Oddly enough, the only countries to see a rise in sales were England and France. The Independent (UK) 04/17/02

HARLEM CHOIR ARREST: The counseling director of the world-renowned Boys Choir of Harlem and its prestigious college-prep school was arrested yesterday and charged with fondling a 13-year-old boy.” New York Post 04/16/02

DUMB TIL YOU’RE NUMB: Why are fewer people listening to classical music on the radio? “The big problem is that music has been progressively dumbed down over the years, and not just at WNYC. Talk about music has replaced music itself, or the music is guitar sonatas and easy-listening favorites, background noise that drives away serious devotees. The public can judge quality. If you cheapen a product enough, eventually no one will want it. It is no surprise people have stopped tuning in.” The New York Times 04/17/02

MONTREAL SYMPHONY SITUATION GETS COMPLICATED: What really caused the rift between conductor Charles Dutoit and his Montreal Symphony musicians? Turns out the musicians union mishandled a dismissal clause in the players’ contract. Dutoit was playing by the contract rules as he understood them. Musicians probably didn’t intend to push him to resign. Can the situation be salvaged? La Scena Musicale 04/16/02

Tuesday April 16

MUSIC AS “DAY-PART”: Why does classical music radio programming often sound so canned? How do they decide what music to play? It’s certainly not like programming a concert. Instead, programmers are looking for a “sound” in an exercise known as “day-parting.” Washington’s WGMS has a “database containing descriptions of the music in the station’s 10,000-CD library. Selections in the database are categorized according to a couple of dozen adjectives that the station has come up with to define each composition’s ‘mood and energy level’—among them ‘boisterous,’ ‘pleasant,’ ‘tranquil,’ and ‘lively’.” The Atlantic 03/02

HOW TO GET INTO AN ORCHESTRA: Getting into a professional orchestra is hard. So many players, so few jobs. “For the winners, the rewards are sweet. Top orchestras pay six-figure salaries and grant tenure, meaning players can’t be fired, even if they slack off on practicing. Best of all, you get to do what you love: Play music. It’s a good gig, all right, but only if you can get it.” Here’s how it works. Cleveland Scene 04/11/02

MUSIC IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH (AND COUNTRY): The Queen Mother’s funeral last week reminded at least one critic of Britain’s tie to religious music. “We have grown used to thinking that our musical life takes place overwhelmingly in the concert hall, the opera house or the recording studio. Much of it does. But that is not the whole story. Even now, in modern Britain, there is a case for saying that the most important place in the nation’s musical life is still our churches.” The Guardian (UK) 04/13/02

DRAFTING THE NINTH: The earliest known draft of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is up for auction. “The manuscript, written on two sides of a large oblong sheet, is expected to fetch between 150,000 and 200,000 pounds (up to 320,000 euros, $290,000), according to the auction house.” Nando Times (AFP) 04/15/02

Monday April 15

WHY KILL THE CHORUS? The Baltimore Symphony recently announced plans to cut its chorus, which has been performing for 32 years with the orchestra. “The chorus costs the orchestra $150,000 annually, or about 0.006 percent of the Baltimore Symphony’s budget ($25 million). This hardly would appear cause for discarding a group of volunteer singers that has strengthened ties between orchestra and public for more than three decades, while exploring a vast, rich choral repertoire.” As for quality? You want a good chorus, you get a good director. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/14/02 

KRALL DOMINATES JUNOS: Diana Krall and the band Nickelback dominate the Junos, Canada’s annual music recording awards Sunday night. “With three Juno awards apiece, Krall and Nickelback were winners in the top categories at Sunday night’s Juno awards. Krall took best artist and best album, as well as best vocal jazz album for The Look of Love.” National Post (CP) 04/15/02

BIG TIME JAZZ: Female jazz singers are hot right now. Recording companies are scouring clubs to find the Next Big Thing, and sales are going well. Why? Diana Krall. Her breakout success selling albums has singers and producers dreaming big. And suddely there’s a crop of new voices. Los Angeles Times 04/14/02

‘POOR ME’ DOESN’T WASH: Is the music recording business suffering? “Imagine a business where they cut the number of products released; raised the prices of their products to more than 20 bucks a pop; had a significant number of their distributors go out of business; reduced the amount of marketing money spent to promote each product; saw major promotional money and discounts from the two years of dot-com mania disappear; and saw complete turnover and management problems at one of their biggest providers, EMI. Yet in spite of all of these things, [the industry] sold more CDs and for more total dollars than the previous year. I would tell you that is a business that has had a great year. The RIAA has tried to paint the picture that the industry is suffering because of file sharing. It’s not. There is more evidence that it has benefited from it.” Phoenix New Times 04/13/02

MUSIC BY LAPTOP: “In a larger sense, nearly all of the music you hear today, both recorded and live, is electronic. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s digital – many studio engineers and artists remain fervently attached to analog hardware, with its arguably greater warmth and richness. But the computer is inextricably woven into all stages of the modern recording process: Even acoustic music such as string quartets and bluegrass is spliced and diced with all-purpose mixing software like Pro Tools and Logic. The wandering tones of mediocre (but marketable) singers are routinely treated with pitch-correcting programs like Antares Auto-Tune. And no one balks at drum machines anymore.” Wired 04/15/02

Sunday April 14

ONE LAST FUTILE PLEA: The Montreal Symphony is making a token effort to get Charles Dutoit to reconsider his resignation. “In a brief statement issued just after 8, the orchestra said it would contact the conductor today in Pittsburgh and ask him to reconsider the resignation he had tendered 24 hours earlier. Yet the statement appeared to concede the inevitability of his departure by expressing a desire to ensure ‘a harmonious transition in the artistic direction of the orchestra.'” Montreal Gazette 04/12/02

• SO WHOSE FAULT IS IT? Is Dutoit really the autocratic tyrant one union boss has made him out to be? Are the MSO musicians a bunch of thin-skinned crybabies who’ve dug themselves a hole and fallen into it? And ultimately, how did the situation ever get to this crisis point without someone, somewhere, noticing and doing something about it? One critic is ready to start assigning responsibility. Montreal Gazette 04/13/02
• FAR FROM THE ACTION: While the Montreal situation roils and boils, Charles Dutoit is continuing his career as one of the world’s most prominent guest conductors, and while no one would ever claim that he is an easy man to work for, other North American orchestras continue to bring him back, year in and year out. This week, Dutoit is in Pittsburgh, and despite some rather unclassical interruptions, the critics say he remains in complete control of his emotions, and in the grip of the music he leads. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette & Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 04/13/02

VONK SCALING BACK IN ST. LOUIS: Conductor Hans Vonk has asked the management of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra to redefine and scale back his role as music director, citing health concerns. Vonk, who is suffering from a rare form of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, had to leave the podium during a concert with the SLSO last winter, and subsequently cancelled a number of engagements elsewhere. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 04/12/02

ANOTHER ORCHESTRA IN THE RED: The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has become the latest in a long string of North American orchestras to annoucne massive operating losses. The BSO is running a $1 million deficit, and will be looking to make cuts, but will continue with plans for a tour of Japan this fall. Baltimore Sun 04/12/02

HONG KONG PHIL LOSES A GM: Things haven’t been particularly stable at the Hong Kong Philharmonic ever since new music director Sam Wong stepped in and began cleaning house, and now the new direction of the orchestra appears to have claimed another victim. General manager Edith Lei Mei-Lon has announced her departure from the Phil after 13 years, but insists that the Wong controversy has nothing to do with it. Still, no one’s offering any other explanation. Andante (South China Morning Post) 04/12/02

MIXED MESSAGES: Part of the trouble with the classical music profession is that the recording industry seems to have a profoundly different idea of what classical music is for than do its performers and advocates. “While live music goes on being promoted as a multicolored festoon of passion, thrills, bedazzlement and beauty, the marketing of recorded music at a certain level is more and more emphasizing the calming effect.” In other words, orchestras want to be exciting, while record labels want to help people fall asleep. The New York Times 04/14/02

THAT RELAUNCH IS COMING ANY DAY NOW, WE SWEAR: “Song-swapping service Napster has laid off 30 employees, its third round of job cuts since October. The troubled business has yet to relaunch itself as a legal music download service since going offline in July 2001.” BBC 04/12/02

SEIJI’S LEGACY: As Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra prepare to part ways after more than a quarter-century, the critics weigh in on his impact. Certainly, he is a legitimate star in the orchestral world, but it doesn’t take much prodding to get musicians around the world to complain about his imprecise baton or his questionable grasp of the core repertoire. “Paradoxically, now that Ozawa is 66 and beginning to be acclaimed in Vienna and elsewhere as an Old Master himself, he is far more radical, eclectic, and exploratory than he was as a young man. He is still eager to ‘taste’ all that music, particularly opera, that he hasn’t had the opportunity to conduct before, still adding nearly as much to his repertory as he repeats.” Boston Globe 04/14/02

• THE ROAD TO THE TOP: Like so many of the music world’s top performers, Seji Ozawa’s rise to prominence was part talent, part hard work, and part luck. He won his first conducting competition as a lark while tooling around Europe on a scooter, and almost immediately caught the attention of legends like Charles Munch and Leonard Bernstein. His ascent to the top ranks was meteoric, and few conductors have ever put such a distinctive stamp on an orchestra as has Ozawa with the BSO. Boston Herald 04/14/02
• SEIJI SPEAKS: Through his years in Boston, Ozawa has rarely responded verbally to his critics, preferring to keep his dealings with the BSO in-house. In an extended interview with the city’s leading music critic, the maestro explains what it was he tried to create in Boston, and why controversy was inevitable: “‘When I came in, the orchestra played with a wonderful finesse of color that was the creation of Charles Munch and that was still there 10 years after he had left. I wanted a bigger and darker sound from the strings and the brass, and when I asked for it, some difficult situations arose.'” Boston Globe 04/14/02

CONDUCTOR COLLAPSES, DIES ON THE JOB: “Leading Russian conductor Mark Ermler, 69, died in Seoul on Sunday after collapsing during a rehearsal for a concert by the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, officials said. Ermler was associated with the Bolshoi Theatre and Opera throughout his career and was its musical director until 2000. He became chief conductor of the Seoul Philarmonic in May 2000.” Andante (Agence France-Presse) 04/14/02

A BEER AND A BUMP AND SOME BACH: There was a time when classical music was not the stuffy, formal, tuxedo-clad beast that it has become. Back in the day (the 18th century, actually,) classical music was, y’know, popular. A 31-year-old Israeli cellist is taking a stab at duplicating the effect, playing Bach in bars, clubs, and all sorts of other places you’d never think of. Baltimore Sun 04/13/02

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: “Montreal-born composer Henry Brant has some advice for young artists of all sorts. ‘Take care of yourself until you’re old enough to do your best work. That’s when everything becomes clearer what’s important and what’s less important, and how to proceed.’ Nobody could accuse him of failing to heed his own advice: At the age of 88 he’s in good health and has just won a Pulitzer Prize for composition.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 04/13/02

Friday April 12

WHEN THE CHICKENS COME HOME: Pop music deserves its current dire straits. “Today’s pop scene has very little to do with making music: music is simply one of the pegs on which the New Instant Celebrity is hung. All notions of quality and artistry seem to have gone out of the window. By concentrating on short-term profits from instant hit singles by a fast turnover of disposable pop stars who are little more than karaoke singers, and all the major labels trawling the same over-fished pool of international talent by splashing out obscene sums of money for those few artists who can notionally guarantee massive sales, the ‘industry of human happiness’ is ultimately digging its own grave. The music business has been cruising for this particular bruising for years.” The Independent (UK) 04/11/02

AFTER HE’S GONE: Musicians of the Montreal Symphony seem unrepentant that they provoked music director Charles Dutoit to quit the orchestra. “In the past year or so it’s become intolerable. The musicians are constantly berated or they’re insulted or there are sarcastic comments.”  So what comes now for Canada’s top orchestra? “In terms of its international prestige, if it can’t find a conductor of high quality to replace him, a period of decline will inevitably take place.” Canada.com (CP) 04/11/02

• IS DUTOIT’S DECISION FINAL? “In the music industry, speculation runs both ways as to whether the decision is final. Some who have worked extensively with the decisive, Swiss-born conductor believe the resignation will be rescinded in a few days. Others claim that the only way he’ll return to Montreal is to clean out his apartment.” Philadelphia Inquirer 04/12/02
• CANADA LOSES ITS MOST PROMINENT CONDUCTOR: Would Dutoit be interested in the vacant Toronto Symphony job? “Forget about that. Having presided over Montreal’s surpassing Toronto’s as the country’s leading orchestra, he isn’t likely to settle for second best.What a sad end to a great chapter in Canadian orchestral history.” Toronto Star 04/12/02

THE MAKINGS OF A CAREER: “Why do some splendid performers enjoy major international careers and other equally splendid performers do not? And how to explain why certain flashy performers have thriving international careers, while more substantive performers never seem to break out of a regional success? It may come down to a certain temperament or drive that propels some artists to popular success. A marketable image, or just an inexplicable something that audiences connect with. The artist makes choices, too.” New York Times 04/11/02

MUNICH MUSICIANS PREFER… The Munich Philharmonic is looking for a new music director, and the players, at least, have forcefully expressed their preference. “A ‘highly qualified majority’ of the orchestra has voiced a clear preference that amounts to a statement of artistic intent: The object of their affection is Christian Thielemann.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 04/11/02

SEIJI’S LAST SEASON: Seiji Ozawa is leaving the Boston Symphony after this season. But first there’s a round of parties, farewell concerts and interviews… Boston Herald 04/12/02

Thursday April 11

DUTOIT QUITS MONTREAL: Charles Dutoit, music director of the Montreal Symphony since 1977, has resigned from the orchestra after a nasty spat with his players. “Dutoit said in a statement that he reached the decision following ‘hostile declarations’ by the president of the Quebec Musicians’ Guild that were shared by a majority of the MSO musicians.” Dutoit is credited with building Montreal into Canada’s best orchestra, an orchestra that at one time was declared by Parisian critics as “the best French orchestra in the world.” Toronto Star 04/11/02

• LONG TIME BREWING: “Relations with the Swiss music director have been frosty since the end of the last musicians’ strike in 1998. Although Mr. Dutoit took their side in that dispute, he was unhappy with certain provisions in the new contract regarding tours and recordings.” National Post (Canada) 04/11/02
• Previously: REVOLT IN MONTREAL: Montreal Symphony music director Charles Dutoit tried to fire two of the orchestra’s musicians, and now the entire orchestra has risen up in revolt. “Sadly, the reality of life in the MSO for most players is … a reality of unrelenting harassment, condescension and humiliation by a man whose autocratic behaviour has become intolerable.” The Montreal Musicians Guild has “asked its lawyers to prepare a lawsuit against the MSO after an ‘overwhelming’ majority of MSO players voted in a secret ballot to give the union a mandate to take action.” Montreal Gazette 04/10/02

PROTESTING A PULITZER: A critic who heard the world premiere of Henry Brant’s Ice Field  last December in San Francisco is stunned that the work won this year’s Pulitzer. “Entertaining at best, the composition’s only distinction was being one of the most pointless and frustrating concert experiences in my memory.” San Francisco Classical Voice 04/09/02

• BRANT SPEAKS: Henry Brant is 88: “The main thing is for a composer to stick around as long as possible and keep working – otherwise you miss things like this. I’m now the second oldest living composer of nonpopular music, after Elliott Carter.” Of his piece Ice Field, he told Josh Kosman: “It’s one of the best-realized things I’ve done. That’s another reason for sticking around a long time – you come to understand these things better. Although it’s not a simple piece, I think it’s one of the most accessible to audiences of anything I’ve written.” San Francisco Chronicle 04/09/02
• MORE ON ICE FIELD: The Pulitzer “was given to a piece that is by no means an easygoing, conventional piece. I regard it [the prize] as an encouragement to keep going the way that I go.” Los Angeles Times 04/10/02

ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING: UCLA is close to Hollywood, so you’d maybe expect when the school reached out to name an “artist in residence” it might turn in a pop culture direction. But Elvis Costello’s artist-in-residence gig hasn’t exactly paid off for the university. Barely in to the job, Costello has left to work on an album, and the residency has been put on hold. “A ballet based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with orchestral music composed by Costello for the Italian dance company Aterballeto, originally planned for this summer, is probably not going to happen at all because of scheduling conflicts, though the music may be performed in another context.” Los Angeles Times 04/10/02

SAME OLD DIRGE: Surely with all the wonderful music out there, official funerals could offer something other than Chopin’s Funeral March, that dirge that gets trotted out for every important death. “Can no one compose a better send-off than the dreary third movement of Frederic Miseryguts Chopin’s Sonata number two in B-flat minor?” London Evening Standard 04/10/02 

Wednesday April 10

AUSTRALIA’S TOP 100: Last week Classic FM in the UK released the results of its poll of most-loved music. Now an Australian poll is out, and it’s remarkable how similar the lists are (yes, Rachmaninoff topped both lists). “One of the odd and surely disappointing features of the Australian list (even if you don’t think much of list-making in general) is that not a single Australian piece makes it into the top 100.” Sydney Morning Herald 04/10/02

REVOLT IN MONTREAL: Montreal Symphony music director Charles Dutoit tried to fire two of the orchestra’s musicians, and now the entire orchestra has risen up in revolt. “Sadly, the reality of life in the MSO for most players is … a reality of unrelenting harassment, condescension and humiliation by a man whose autocratic behaviour has become intolerable.” The Montreal Musicians Guild has “asked its lawyers to prepare a lawsuit against the MSO after an ‘overwhelming’ majority of MSO players voted in a secret ballot to give the union a mandate to take action.” Montreal Gazette 04/10/02

TURNING OPERA AROUND: Tom Morris is “the man who is giving opera a good name. And it’s not just the heads of the opera and theatre establishment who are craning their necks to see how it’s done. It’s everyone.” They’re coming to the backside of South London to his Battersea Arts Center for productions like “Jerry Springer: The Opera – a vulgar, violent, crude and thrilling work-in-progress which set the travails of the freaks and misfits of daytime television to an exhilaratingly promiscuous score. At less than a fiver a ticket, audiences and critics couldn’t get enough of the Lesbian Dwarf Diaper Fetishist, the Chick with a Dick or the Fighting Bitches, and fought for returns outside the stuffy 150-seater auditorium.” The Telegraph (UK) 04/10/02

THE ACCIDENTAL CRITIC: Newsday’s Justin Davidson hasn’t been music critic for long – since 1995 – and fell into the business accidentally. But this week he won the Pulitzer for criticism. “The judges praised ‘his crisp coverage of classical music that captures its essence.’ Among the body of work receiving recognition were opera reviews and a series of long feature stories on recent developments in new music.” Newsday 04/09/02

Tuesday April 9

CUTTING YOURSELF: The Philadelphia Orchestra came up with an outreach program that offered to demystify classical music for those who were new to it. “The format is probably the most elucidating and engaging new experience any orchestra has come up with. The largely young listeners seemed perplexed at first, but after a few minutes you could practically see the lightbulbs go on above their heads.” But just as audiences for the new program were building, the orchestra has dropped the series. Why? Money. “A bigger penny-wise, pound-foolish miscalculation the orchestra hasn’t made in years.” Philadelphia Inquirer 04/09/02

TRADITIONAL REBEL: “The career of director Franco Zeffirelli remains a conundrum. Flamboyant, mercurial, vain and ambitious, Zeffirelli is as famous as the stars he features in his highly personal films. His tastes are too highbrow for Hollywood yet too hoi polloi for the elite. At the Metropolitan Opera, Zeffirelli’s surname is a synonym for gorgeous overkill. But like so much else about him, even that name is an invention, carefully crafted for maximum effect.” Opera News 04/02

ELVIS SPEAKS OUT: Siberian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky has been called the “Elvis of opera” by one magazine. And he’s got the credentials of a big time star. Yet he left his recording label contract after they tried to push him into some “tacky” crossover albums. He admires the Three Tenors, but he’s “distressed that the most famous opera singer in America is Andrea Bocelli. ‘That’s like saying the best cuisine in the world is chewing gum’.” The Telegraph (UK) 04/09/02

Monday April 8

SO MANY STRINGS… The Canadian Opera Company has a big problem. Sure the Canadian government is giving the company $25 million for its new home. And the province is throwing in another 25. But there’s a little dispute about how much the land the new hall is to be built on is worth. And who should pay for it. And which government ought to make which deal with whom…It’s difficult to feel good about all this generosity when there are so many agendas floating about. Toronto Star 094/07/02

COMPETITION MESS: Pasadena’s new Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition promised to be a different kind of competition, a competition free of controversy. But the jury disqualified the pianist who earlier in the week had been voted the audience favorite, and publicly humiliated him by declaring him unprepared. Los Angeles Times 04/08/02

• RIPPING THE RACHMANINOFF: How much did Mark Swed dislike the new Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition in Pasadena? Let him count the ways. “What made me most uneasy Saturday, however, was not a vulgar pianist collaborating with a crude orchestra to produce studied excitement. After all, the Rachmaninoff prize is not likely to mean much, one way or another. Rather it was hard to respect any public presentation that demonstrated such disregard for the audience and performers alike.” Los Angeles Times 04/08/02

TAMED: Rock’s bad boys have gone domestic. “In the past we could always bank on the fact that, no matter how badly we conducted ourselves, we would seem like paragons of virtue compared to our pop idols. Pranged your father’s car? Calm down, daddi-o, if Keith Moon had been at the wheel of that slightly dented Rover it would currently be lying at the bottom of the neighbour’s swimming pool. But now it’s all over.” The Scotsman 04/07/02

Sunday April 7

WHAT BECOMES A CLASSIC? “Which songs from the rock era will be the standards of the future? It’s hard to even agree on the criteria. Songs that define a cultural moment, songs with an unforgettable melody, songs that the most people loved – all of those qualities contribute to a song’s staying power. Or not. It’s no secret how mercurial the world of pop music is. The great songwriter Nick Drake is a shadowy cult figure and ABBA is the toast of Broadway. Go figure. It’s impossible to predict with any certainty what musicians will want to play, and what listeners will want to hear, a half century from now.” Boston Globe 04/07/02

WAITING FOR THE NBT: There’s a sense in popular music that a big change is just around the corner, that the Next Big Thing is about to break. “Whatever it is, it will come out of left field; it will not be what we expect. It may not come originally out of North America: It is more likely to come from middle-class North Americans or Europeans imitating some less privileged group, such as transplanted Turks in Germany, or Brazilian or North African peasants. I have a hunch, personally, that it will come from suburbs rather than cities — it may well be some kind of angsty celebration of malls and empty spaces.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/06/02

EXPLOITING BERNSTEIN: Is there another modern-era composer who’s been more marketed and promoted than Leonard Bernstein? His legacy has been relentlessly hawked since his death in 1990. But evidently, the Bernstein estate wants more. Gap ads. CD holders. “We’d like it exploited a little bit more. I think when people think of great music, a lot of people think of Bernstein. But he was much more. He was the American superstar of classical music, and not just classical, but Broadway and all the other things he did.” Philadelphia Inquirer 04/07/02

LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD LEADERS: The BBC Orchestra is looking foir a new music director. A few other English orchestras will also be looking in the near future. But who is there to lead them? “With the 18th-century classics now largely the province of period-instrument bands, symphony orchestras must expand their repertories forward, making the whole of the 20th century part of their regular programming. There are relatively few high-flying conductors who make a point of doing just that.” The Guardian (UK) 04/06/02

THE MAN WHO SAVED SAN DIEGO: When conductor Jun-Ho Pak joined the San Diego Symphony, the orchestra was in tough financial straits and struggling at the box office. Now the orchestra is moving up to the next level. How to keep an orchestra alive? “It’s about personal contact, getting to know audiences one on one. Spending time telling our story, what music means to us, why it’s pertinent.” That’s how San Diego got itself back on the boards, he says. “It was good old pressing of the flesh, letting them know there’s a face behind what many think an old, high-art form.” San Jose Mercury News 04/07/02

Friday April 5

BUY AMERICAN: One reason why so many American singers, male and female, are in constant demand is that they are almost always thoroughly trained, in addition to a basic knowledge of how to use their voices, in stagecraft and in the ability to read and quickly memorise a score. Some of them are stars, others are capable youngsters on the way up. The youngsters rehearse the history of many of the stars in being ready, at the shortest possible notice, to master a difficult piece of music in order to replace an absent or indisposed singer and in having the all-round competence to find their way round an unfamiliar stage with only a resident director or two to prompt their next move from the wings. This helps to explain why some operatic occasions at – to pick one outstanding example – the Salzburg Festival seem like a club of expatriate American singers.” Sydney Morning Herald 04/05/02

A MATTER OF PRIORITIES: For 20 years conductor William Christie has been “the music public’s most trusted guide to the largely unknown treasures of the French baroque.” But his career has been based in France rather than the UK or the US, and his opinion of support for the arts in the English-speaking world is not high. “Let’s face it. You in Britain, like we in the States, have been governed by people who do not understand culture or, if they do, are interested only in elitist culture. The Thatchers and the Reagans of this world will certainly be remembered, I’m sure, but not because they have given beauty to people.” The Guardian (UK) 04/05/02

LIKE CHARITY, PIRACY BEGINS AT HOME: Think pirate CDs and you think exotic far away places, like Marakesh, or Shanghai, or Camarillo. Camarillo? Yeah, it’s in California. That’s where, according the the Recording Industry of America, the Technicolor Corporation has been churning out illegal copies of CDs by ‘N Sync and Celine Dion, among others. BBC 04/05/02

Thursday April 4

CONCERT AGENCY FAILING TO PAY MUSICIANS: Community Concerts Associates has long been an important promoter of young musical talent in cities across the United States. But the agency was sold in 1999, and now musicians engaged by CCA say they are having difficulty getting paid for concerts they have performed. Is CCA in danger of collapse? Andante 04/03/02  

THE WAGNERS AND THE RABBI: For years, the descendants of Richard Wagner have guarded fiercely his reputation, and refused to release documents that might in any way support what the world already knows – that the composer was a vicious anti-Semite. As a result, the family itself has gained a reputation as being close-minded and anti-Semitic, but a collection of correspondence between Wagner’s son and a German rabbi may show otherwise. La Scena Musicale 04/03/02

GRAMMYS BACK TO NY: Four years ago the Grammy Awards moved out of New York to LA, after feeling unloved by Big Apple officials. With a new mayor, the event is returning to New York. “The recording academy, which gives the awards, estimates that having the event in the city brings $35 million to $40 million to local businesses.” The New York Times 04/04/02

MOONLIGHTING RUSSIANS: On a recent American tour, the Kirov Orchestra picked up a little extra freelance work. “According to MusicalAmerica.com, which first reported the story on its Web site, the orchestra, based in St. Petersburg, Russia, recorded the soundtrack music for an upcoming Paramount film, K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford.” So? The Russian orchestra plays for less than American musicians. The American Federation of Musicians is deeply unhappy. Washington Post 04/04/02 

BROOKLYN PHIL SETTLEMENT: The Brooklyn Philharmonic and its musicians have settled a contract dispute. “The three-year contract calls for a wage freeze in the first year and increases in the second and third year.” Andante 04/03/02

ONLY FOR A LIMITED TIME: The New Jersey Symphony has received a mind-blowing offer from a long-time subscriber. Collector Herbert Axelrod wants to outfit the orchestra’s first violins with Strads and Guarneris, and also supply a particularly beautiful Strad for the principal cellist. The instruments being offered are valued at $50 million, but Axelrod is offering them to the NJSO for half price, an unprecedented discount. The catch? The orchestra must come up with the money by June 30. Boston Globe (AP) 04/04/02

WHAT KILLED BEETHOVEN? A popular book has claimed that the German master was doomed to deafness and eventual death by lead poisoning, based on DNA analysis of a lock of his hair. But not everyone is convinced, and experts have been raising questions about the reliability of hair analysis, and pointing out that the lead poisoning theory is inconsistent with Beethoven’s late-life musical output. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 04/04/02

OCTOGENARIAN ROCK CRITIC RETIRES: Jane Scott may well be the most unlikely rock ‘n roll writer in the history of the genre. For the last 50 years, Scott has written, and written intelligently, about every corner of the rock world for Cleveland’s Plain Dealer. Even at the beginning, she was older than most rock fans, and this week, the week she retires from her post, she turns 83. But Scott’s musings on the music that changed America have stood as some of the finest music writing any newspaper has produced, and her analysis of the good, the bad, and the ugly were read as gospel not only by fans, but by many of her colleagues. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/04/02

Wednesday April 3

TOP CLASSICAL: What is Britain’s most-loved classical music? Listener’s of the UK’s Classic FM voted Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto on top. Bruch clocks in at No. 2. New to this year’s list is John Williams’ score for the Harry Potter movie… The Independent (UK) 04/02/02

GOOD BUT POOR: Scottish Opera has been applauded for its recent productions and the company is celebrating its 40th birthday. But the company is struggling financially. This season was scaled back, even after an emergency infusion of public cash. And the Arts Council is dropping large hints that funding for expensive arts like opera are on the decline. The Scotsman 04/03/02 

FROM STREET TO STAGE: “Classical music’s newest sensation is the OperaBabes, two attractive young female singers whose record label, Sony Music, has earmarked them as one of its top projects of the year. Yet less than a year ago, Karen England and Rebecca Knight were busking outside the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London.The novelty of their approach is to give personal adaptations of classic arias and great classical orchestral works. They will, for example, almost heretically add their own lyrics to Dvorak’s New World Symphony.” The Independent (UK) 04/01/02

WHERE THE BOYS AREN’T: “A crisis in our musical life is coming to the boil: boys just don’t want to sing ‘classically’ any more. The great majority of youth and church choirs are now exclusively female. Most school singing classes can persuade boys only to bawl out show tunes, which give them no training in vocal technique or expressiveness.” So what will become of the great English boychoirs? The Telegraph (UK) 04/03/02

SCIENCE IN THE SERVICE OF HUMANITY: A Japanese company has announced that it will soon unveil a device, intended for use in karaoke bars, which instantly gives even the most horrendous singer note-perfect pitch. The technology is in its infancy, and is not without problems (truly off-key singers may confound the machine, and the corrective process sometimes results in distortion that may throw performers off,) but the inventers say anything would be an improvement on the vocal stylings of many karaoke performers. Wired 04/03/02

Tuesday April 2

RANKING THE UK’S ORCHESTRAS: What are the best orchestras in Britain? Worst? Unless you’re hearing all of them on a regular basis, it’s difficult to make meaningful comparisons. Here’s one critic’s ranking of the best in the land. Probably not a surprise, but the entrepreneurial London Symphony is at the top of the pack. At the other end of the list is the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. The Times (UK) 04/02/02

WHY IT SOUNDS DIFFERENT: Why is American music different from European music? Perhaps the American variety comes from experimentation with sound, while European music started with an idea. “From such poundings on pianos and yowlings of cats American music began. Specifically, it sprang from a delight in sounds not found in ‘correct’ European music. Such legends, with their delight in rebelliousness and transgression, are a far cry from the origin story of European music, by which Pythagoras heard four hammers hitting an anvil in the perfect concord C, F, G, C.” NewMusicBox 04/02

GOING IT ALONE: “Entrepreneurship in the classical music biz isn’t new. Orchestras own the rights to an overwhelming amount of recorded music, and it’s not as though they haven’t released their own performances before.” But as recording labels give up classical music, and costs for recording and distributing their own music fall, more and more orchestras and musicians are setting up their own labels. Public Arts (WBUR) 04/02/02

Monday April 1

CAN MUSIC HELP PEACE? Should visiting musicians continue to perform in Israel as tensions in the region increase? Some, like Daniel Barenboim, believe art can be a force for peace. Others aren’t sure: “Music as a bridge between nations is a very nice idea. We’d all like to believe in it. But I don’t remember anybody signing a peace treaty after a concert. Music is a bridge between people, not nations.” But whether they continue to perform or cancel concerts, musicians are sure to be criticized either way. Andante 04/01/02

SAYING GOODBYE TO SEIJI: After 29 years, Seiji Ozawa is leaving the Boston Symphony. “Player for player, the Boston Symphony musicians can hold their own against those in almost any major American orchestra. On a given night in the right work, the orchestra can play exceedingly well for Mr. Ozawa. But there has long been a sense that the chemistry between the conductor and the musicians is not always right. It has never been hard to get players to express their frustrations privately. So what happened?” The New York Times 03/31/02

OPERA AS A BRAND: San Francisco Opera is changing its “look.” “The visual strategy has resulted in two ‘brands’ of dubious artistic quality, presented in the cynical hope that people will buy SFO like they buy Coke or Nike. Speaking of which, our new ‘opera’ logo, with its slash-graphic, is a direct steal from Nike’s swoosh. Wonder if Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan can sing? The second brand is ‘a signature red bird that highlights SFO’s most adventurous productions,’ though one wonders how fiscally wise it is to attempt attracting new subscribers by warning them of the Red Bird Danger ahead.” San Francisco Examiner 03/31/02

POPULAR LURE: Crossovers between pop music and classical work so rarely, why does anyone bother? “Good pop expresses the inexpressible; it speaks where thought collapses. It is still an unknown language. It is a little like a beaten virus. Once it’s inside you, a part of it stays, perpetually infecting and protecting at once. With power like this at his fingertips, is it strange that a pop composer will occasionally take a liberty with an opera star? And with that kind of effectiveness and reach, is it strange that orchestral stars should long, by association with pop, to achieve the same infinite engagement with every individual audience member?” The Observer (UK) 03/31/02

Friday March 29

NEW YORK TO GET GRAMMYS? It looks like the Grammy Awards, which have been held in Los Angeles the past four years, are moving to New York. “The show is broadcast in 161 countries and generates an estimated $20 million to $40 million for the host city. The show has also grown to include a week’s worth of parties, concerts and cultural events that extend well beyond its three-hour television broadcast.” Los Angeles Times 03/29/02

TOWARDS YOUNGER POORER AUDIENCES: Trying to fight off charges of elitism, London’s Royal Opera House has released a study that says its patrons are getting younger and poorer (really). The study shows that “one fifth of opera goers were under 35 years old – and a similar proportion earn less than £15,000 per year. And more than half of opera goers have an income less than £30,000. BBC 03/28/02

STREET NOISE (OR BEAUTIFUL MUSIC?): Since the mid-1980s, members of the Chicago City Council have been “waging war” on street musicians, “pushing for increasingly restrictive rules governing their behavior and branding them ‘unhealthful,’ ‘safety hazards’ and ‘peddlers’.” Now the city’s reversed itself, putting up $1.5 million to encourage street music in a program called Music Everywhere across the Midwest. The idea is that from May 30 to Sept. 29 “the city will be awash in accordionists, organ grinders, kazoos, harmonicas and ‘little bongos’ that will be handed out – free of charge! – to pedestrians” along with invitations to play on the streets. Chicago Tribune 03/29/02

Thursday March 28

CONCERT HALL DOCTOR: Acoustician Russell Johnson has designed the sound for many successful concert halls around the world – he’s one of the best in the profession. So why, given the sorry state of acoustics in London’s concert spaces, has no one signed up Johnson to make things better? London Evening Standard 03/27/02 

MUSIC’S VOODOO ECONOMICS: Recording company EMI recently announced it is cutting 1800 jobs and a quarter of its artists. “Some interesting facts have emerged: record sales are falling internationally (down almost 10 per cent in the US); only five per cent of major label releases make a profit, and big record companies need to sell 500,000 copies of a CD just to break even.” But “undeterred by paying Mariah Carey £38 million to end her contract (and dropping hundreds of other artists) they have just offered Robbie Williams £40 million to extend his.” The Telegraph (UK) 03/28/02

TRANS-PENNSYLVANIA COMMISSIONS: “Three new works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Oliver Knussen and Roberto Sierra will be commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony under the terms of a new commissioning project to be announced today. All three works will be performed by both orchestras, with one orchestra giving the world premiere of each, and the other holding the right to take that piece to Carnegie Hall for its New York premiere.” Philadelphia Inquirer 03/28/02

BOULEZ COMING FULL CIRCLE? Over the decades, composer/conductor Pierre Boulez, who made his reputation attacking the conventions of the art music world, has softened his approach to music and his treatment of those who write and perform it, and in the process, has become one of the world’s most beloved authorities on new music. The Lucerne Festival has now announced that Boulez will head up a new contemporary music academy, under the auspices of the festival, beginning in 2004. The academy will focus on teaching young musicians how to appreciate contemporary music as they do Beethoven and Bruckner. Andante 03/28/02

BBC CANCELS NORTH AMERICAN TOUR: Hot on the heels of Leonard Slatkin’s announcement that he will step down from its music directorship in 2004, the BBC Symphony has cancelled its planned tour of the U.S., scheduled for 2003. The orchestra’s management is citing economics and a harsh touring schedule as reasons for the cancellation. Andante 03/27/02

DALLAS GM TO DENVER: The general manager of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which has risen in the last decade to become one of America’s top ensembles, is leaving the DSO to take up the GM position with the Colorado Symphony in Denver. The move is somewhat puzzling, given Colorado’s relative lack of prestige in the orchestral world compared with Dallas, despite the presence in Denver of high-profile music director Marin Alsop. Dallas Morning News 03/27/02

ROYAL OPERA OF THE PEOPLE: “The Royal Opera House, London, is attracting more and more first time visitors, with a third of bookings from people new to the venue, according to research. The report backs the ROH’s claims that it is attracting a less elitist audience.” BBC 03/28/02

Wednesday March 27

DOMB SAGA ALMOST OVER AT TSO: “It has taken a long time for this particular cello concerto to reach its climax, but the battered Toronto Symphony Orchestra has finally made a deal for an out-of-court settlement with Daniel Domb, its embattled former principal cellist. That brings an end to a shocking saga that started almost a year ago when Edward Smith, then the TSO’s executive director, tried to fire Domb while he was on unpaid leave recovering from near-fatal head injuries.” Toronto Star 03/27/02

DOROTHY DELAY, 84: Behind every great musician, there is at least one great teacher, and Dorothy DeLay was that teacher to an astonishing number of the world’s top violinists for the past several decades. From Itzhak Perlman to Gil Shaham to Nigel Kennedy, DeLay was a legend among her students, and she became the closest thing the music world has to a matriarch, overseeing the progress of a studio of young musicians which can only be described as the finest in the world. Dorothy DeLay died this week, after a battle with cancer. The New York Times 03/27/02

Tuesday March 26

DEATH BY PAY-TO-PLAY: A US copyright ruling a few weeks ago that says web radio stations must pay royalties for the music they play, threatens to put many of the stations out of business. Even though the fees are small, most stations are small shoestring operations with tiny budgets.  “In recent weeks, webcasters have started a campaign to try to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright law so they can stay on the Internet airwaves.”  Salon 03/25/02

DEAD AGAIN: Once more Napster has been killed, but don’t get in line for tickets to the funeral. A federal court says the company may not resume its free on-line file swapping service. The fatal blow seems to have been administered to the wrong entity, however; Napster never did resume its free service, but focused instead on a paid service. That service too is under attack, but it’s also another story. Wired 03/25/02

SLATKIN WILL DROP BBC GIG: “National Symphony Orchestra Music Director Leonard Slatkin will step down from his “other” job – that of chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra – in September 2004. He has held the position since 2000. Slatkin recently extended his contract with the NSO through the end of the 2005-2006 season. His initial contract with the BBC was set to run through 2003; in renewing for one additional season, he made it clear that 2004 would be his last year.” Washington Post 03/26/02

Monday March 25

WHY NY CITY OPERA SHOULD LEAVE LINCOLN CENTER: “Given that there is now a $l.2-billion renovation plan on the boards, New Yorkers might want to ask how well Lincoln Center has done its job. Robert Moses conceived the complex as a shining city of the arts, taking the place of neighborhoods that he called ‘dismal and decayed.’ It did succeed in sprucing up the Upper West Side and placing the companies in a secure cocoon. But Lincoln Center has never been able to foster an ideal cultural populace that delights equally in opera, ballet, and symphony. In my experience, opera people, ballet people, and symphony people seldom overlap comfortably. The lumping together of such distinct art forms has made it harder for each company to define itself crisply in the public eye. Ensconced in the limestone fortress, they have become subspecies of ‘the performing arts,’ whose main characteristic, the curious onlooker might decide, is an edifying stuffiness. City Opera should jump at the chance to leave this rudderless ship.” The New Yorker 03/25/02

WHAT AILS YOU: Everyone seems to agree that the music business is suffering. How did business get so bad? “The problems began with the mega-mergers of the ’90s, some say. Increasingly large corporations have lost touch with consumers, they claim, alienated artists and failed to incorporate emergent technology by fighting the Napster music downloading system instead of making a deal early on. Performers, in turn, are arguing for improved conditions, including ownership of their work. They want to be free agents, like actors, who are not beholden to long-term contracts with one studio.” Miami Herald 03/24/02

WHOSE COUNTRY IS IT? “For several years there have been growing tensions surrounding country radio, now the top format on the air. Roughly 19 percent of the stations in the United States play country — 2,100 broadcasters out of 11,000. That’s nearly double the number dedicated to the second-most-popular format, talk radio. Yet most of country’s classic artists and styles have been getting short shrift on the air and, consequently, from the Nashville music industry.” The New York Times 03/25/02 

DANISH RADIO’S NEW CONCERT HALL: The Danish Broadcasting Corporation is building a new 1600-seat concert hall, designed by Jean Nouvel. “The 21,000 square meter complex, part of the TV-network’s new Headquarters in Copenhagen, will include all facilities for Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s music production. Arcspace 03/22/02

Sunday March 24

SETTLEMENT IN EDMONTON: The musicians of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra have agreed to a new contract with their management which provides for greater musician input into the way the ESO is run. The settlement ends a months-long standoff over the issue of creative control that was sparked when the ESO management fired popular music director Grzegorz Nowak against the will of the musicians. During the dispute, Nowak claimed he would start his own orchestra, stealing away many of the ESO musicians, and a donor offered the ESO a major gift, but only on condition that it accede to the musicians’ demands. Edmonton Journal 03/21/02

• A PRECEDENT-SETTING AGREEMENT? “The agreement that ended the strike at the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on Thursday is part of a national trend that music-lovers hope will help end the slow diminuendo of Canadian orchestras. Across the country, directors are inviting musicians into the boardroom, finally giving them a chance to wave the baton on the future of their ensemble.” Canada.com (CP) 03/21/02

GET READY FOR MAHLER, SOTTO VOCE: “A directive being debated in the European Parliament and getting a lot of support around Europe would reduce noise in the workplace, concert halls and opera houses included… The bill calls for a workplace decibel limit of 85 without earplugs, 87 with them. Some members of the parliament, Helle Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark among them, think the directive doesn’t go far enough. He is looking for an amendment to lower the level to 83. European musicians are not happy. They say that noise in a factory and the noise of a Bruckner finale are not the same thing… One toot on a trumpet can reach 130 decibels instantaneously.” The New York Times 03/24/02

BACK TO THE FUTURE: After years of fundraising and hoping, the Toronto Symphony’s decidedly substandard concert hall is being renovated, with the project expected to greatly improve the acoustics, which have always been an embarrassment to the TSO. While the renovations are ongoing, the orchestra has returned to its old home, Massey Hall, and some critics are feeling nostalgic. But its a good bet the musicians aren’t, as Massey has notoriously difficult delays and imbalances for those on the stage, even though the sound in the audience is fairly good. Toronto Star 03/23/02

SO WHY ARE THEY PAID SO WELL? When the Vienna Philharmonic visited New York recently, the musicians performed an entire concert without the aid (some would say hindrance) of a conductor. The success of the effort, and countless other similar examples, beg the question of what exactly it is that a conductor adds to a performance that the musicians could not, given the right circumstances, accomplish on their own. And how did the one person on stage not making a sound somehow become the focus of our attention? The New York Times 03/24/02

BEING CONTRARY IN ATLANTA: The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has narrowed the field of architects hoping to design its new concert hall to six, but one of the finalists is stirring the pot perhaps more than the ASO would like. Stephen Holl is insisting that the location of the proposed hall is all wrong, and wants it moved to a different street, where, he says, there would be greater visibility and more convenient access for patrons and musicians. Atlanta Journal-Constitution 03/22/02

AN UNUSUALLY DOWN-TO-EARTH DIVA: “Eileen Farrell, who excelled as both an opera and pop soprano in a string of successful recordings and performances including five seasons at the Met, died Saturday. She was 82… Although her career at opera’s top level was relatively brief, she was considered one of the leading dramatic sopranos of her time.” Andante (AP) 03/24/02

BOOING FROM THE WINGS: Valery Gergiev is one of those omnipresent conductors who seems always to be in demand and on top of the charts. But the usual backstage grumblings that plague many conductors have hit a fever pitch with Gergiev. Musicians hate him for his indecisive baton, critics complain that he knows too small a slice of the repertory, and administrators despise his chronic lateness and frequent cancellations. So why is he still so famous? The truth may be that competence often has little to do with conducting success, but it is equally true that musical insiders are often disdainful of artists who are popular with the public. The New York Times 03/24/02

SLAVA’S WORLD: Few musicians are as universally beloved as cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and for good reason. The Russian emigré who has crafted one of the last century’s greatest performing and conducting careers is a bridge between the musical stars of yesterday and today. He has the profound presence of Pablo Casals, but the easy humor and approachability of Yo-Yo Ma, and th combination makes him a favorite with musicians and audiences alike. The New York Times 03/23/02

THE CRIME OF ACCESSIBILITY: “Philip Glass, who in his hungry years drove a cab in New York, likes to tell the story of the elderly passenger who looked at his taxi licence and informed him that he had the same name as a famous opera composer. That would never happen to Carlisle Floyd, a retired music professor who has had many more performances of his operas than Glass, without a 10th of the renown… Floyd’s cardinal sin, in some eyes, is to write music that pleases many and challenges no one. His realistic operas are full of hummable tunes, many of them fashioned after the folk songs he heard while following his father, a Methodist preacher, through the U.S. South during the thirties.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 03/23/02

Friday March 22

ALL-CLASSICAL IN ARGENTINA: While more US radio stations drop classical music in favor of more profitable formats, in Argentina, pop music fans are protesting the government national radio network’s decision to drop rock music in favor of classical. “Founded in the 1940s, during Juan Perón’s first term in office, the government-run network has frequently been used as a propaganda tool. During the 1990s, the Nacional stations reduced classical music to a minimum in keeping with then-president Carlos Menem’s populist policies.” Andante 03/21/02

Thursday March 21

EMI LAYS OFF 1800: Recording company EMI is laying off 1800 employees, about 19 percent of its total workers. The struggling music label has been losing money and shedding projects. “EMI has 70 labels and 1,500 artists, including The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Lenny Kravitz, Janet Jackson, Garth Brooks and Pink Floyd.” Nando Times (AP) 03/20/02

PIANO COMPETITION “IN THE OLD WAY”: The new Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition begins in Los Angeles. Though scaled down from ambitious plans announced two years ago, organizers are bringing competitors from around the world, as well as the Moscow Radio Symphony to accompany performers. And the head of the festival assures fair judging: He “thinks the world of piano competitions is due for an ethical overhaul, comparing the scene with ice skating events at this year’s Winter Olympic Games. There are numerous examples of judging controversies in piano competition, including a scene in the 1980 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland, when pianist Martha Argerich stormed off the jury to protest the early elimination of young pianist Ivo Pogorelich.” Los Angeles Times 03/20/02

THE WOEFUL STATE OF MOVIE MUSIC: This year’s Oscar-nominated film scores are an uninspired lot. “The Academy’s choices of warhorse composers over fresh and innovative ones reflect the general deflation affecting the movie score. It’s not just that interesting scores aren’t receiving the acclaim they deserve—they’re simply not being written much anymore. When a director looks for a composer these days, it’s usually to write incidental music to be played between the pre-released pop hits that form the real soundtrack of the film.” Slate 03/20/02

Wednesday March 20

COLLECTIVE CONTROL: “The Louisiana Philharmonic is the only symphony orchestra in the United States that is owned and operated by its musicians. They do everything from choosing conductors to approving the advertising budget.” So when the orchestra faced a budget crisis last summer the players voted not to fire colleagues or get a cheaper conductor – they took a pay cut… The New York Times 03/20/02

MENDING HIS WAYS? “After several years of criticism that he’s been neglecting Canadian composers in favour of heavy doses of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, National Arts Centre Orchestra Director Pinchas Zukerman yesterday announced an ambitious new program to develop, promote and support Canadian music nationally and internationally.” Ottawa Citizen 03/20/02

AS GOES NEW YORK? A Who’s Who of the New York classical music world has protested public radio station WNYC’s decision to cut back on its classical music programming. “Unfortunately, New York is going to set an example for the rest of the nation. And that is what’s most disturbing about this decision. People look at New York as a cultural leader not only in the United States, but throughout the world. So this decision is much more significant than simply a reduction of five hours for New York listeners.” Andante 03/19/02

Tuesday March 19

LEAVING TOWN: Musicians of the Phoenix Symphony are leaving the orchestra or auditioning elsewhere after a contract signed last month reduced the orchestra’s pay because of financial difficulties. “After the salary reductions, musicians who last season made a base salary of $33,300 (more for principal musicians) will earn $30,030 this season and still less next year, the first full season under the new contract.” The salary ranks the PSO last among the top 40 professional American orchestras. Arizona Republic 03/18/02

DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP: “For many years, radio has been, and to a degree remains an important ally for contemporary art music. And while an important conduit for the dissemination of music, it has been problematic at best. The musical arts are among the most conservative, or at least the audience is. The art world embraces the contemporary. Modern art museums are a source of civic pride, galleries specialize not only in modern art, but even in specific styles, genres, and niches. On the other hand, modern music remains esoteric and for the most part, underground, tucked away so as not to upset or annoy anyone within earshot. As a result, it is virtually unheard on television and only begrudgingly allotted a few moments on the radio airwaves, often when few listeners are likely to tune in.” NewMusicBox 03/02

TECH IS NOTHING NEW… Let’s not get all carried away thinking that the digital revolution will be the end of music as we know it. Of course music is changing because of technology – it always has – from the invention of the piano to the phonograph… Still…the availability of free music is a compelling change. New York Times Magazine 03/17/02 

MUSIC FOR A DESERT ISLAND: In sixty years of choosing recordings they would take with them to a desert island, participants on the BBC’s program Desert Island Disks most often prefer Beethoven – specifically the Ode to Joy from the Ninth Symphony. Since the 1960s, the most popular pop music has been the Beatles. The Guardian (UK) 03/17/02 

WAGNER-THON: Conductor Daniel Barenboim is performing 10 Wagner operas in just 14 days – all but three of Wagner’s total. “The marathon Berlin event will see him conduct more than 40 hours of music at the city’s prestigious Staatsoper Unter den Linden opera house, where he is general music director.” BBC 03/19/02

Monday March 18

ORDERING OUT: With major labels getting out of the classical music business and smaller independent companies having distribution problems, a growing business in subscriptions holds out some promise. Philadelphia Inquirer 03/17/02

FAILURE TO STUDY: Why have scholars and universities been so slow to study rock/pop music in the way they’ve examined jazz and classical music? “It seems like it’s only with a great deal of age that anything gets picked up on. Rock ‘n’ roll, or as I call it, modern music, reflects all sorts of sophisticated cross-cultural reference points, all of which lends itself to serious artistic consideration. But very few people will tangle with that world. I think it’s a mixture of ignorance and fear.” Los Angeles Times 03/18/02

THE OLD SIDE OF NEW: Contemporary music seems to be performed more and more. But why does so much of it not sound “modern”? Such pieces may be pleasant to hear, but they “don’t advance our art; they don’t bring it closer to the world outside. They feel, as I’ve said, like the classical music of the past, and for that reason they don’t thrive, or at least their thriving might not do us much good, unless they prepare the way for some new style that feels less like classical music, and more like life.” NewMusicBox 03/02

Sunday March 17

THE INHERENT DRAMA OF MUSIC (HELPED A BIT): Chamber music has generally been delivered in plain wrappers – small groups of musicians dressed in black performing on a stage. After decades of conventional performances, the Emerson String Quartet, arguably the finest quartet currently performing, “has begun confronting the idea that a concert is inherently a theatrical experience” and has begun performing Shostakovish as part of a visual/dramatic performance. Los Angeles Times 03/17/02

WHO’S GOING TO PAY? It costs a lot to find and promote a new band who will earn enough from album sales to turn a profit. And it’s getting harder as digital copying of Cds proliferates. So who’s going to pay for the development of new artists? “The industry seems to have lost touch with its roots, spending too much pursuing manufactured megastars.” The Age (Melbourne) 03/16/02

A LAVISH CAREER: At 79, director Franco Zeffirelli “is the same age as Verdi at the premiere of Falstaff, his comic farewell to the stage. The two have been in touch a great deal of late.” For decades, Zeffirelli’s lavish productions have been a Metropolitan Opera staple. Usually a hit with audiences, the productions haven’t been kindly treated by critics for some time. A revival of Zeffirelli’s Falstaff, which was his Met debut in 1964, is an opportunity to reflect on what initially attracted the opera world to him. The New York Times 03/17/02

Friday March 15

PARALLEL UNIVERSE? The president of the Recording Industry Association of America speaks at the opening of this year’s SXSW conference in Austin. She “alternately sounded like the captain of the Titanic asking, ‘Iceberg? What iceberg?’ and George Orwell’s double-speaking Big Brother stubbornly insisting, ‘Black is white.’ She maintained that RIAA surveys prove that consumers do not object to the average CD price pushing the $20 mark, and that federal anti-trust laws are actually bad for consumers, since they are slowing the record companies down from banding together to institute technical ‘improvements’ that will stop us from making duplicate copies of our own CDs. By far Rosen’s most absurd contention was that record companies create artists, not the other way around.” Chicago Sun-Times 03/15/02

• CD’s HELD HOSTAGE: The Recording Industry is lobbying Congress for mandatory anti-piracy technology for recordings. “It would be outrageous that you can’t combat technology with technology,” Rosen said. “Let the music industry deal with its consumers because it’s in our interest to make products that people will buy.” But “the deployment of copy-protected CDs threatens to unilaterally eliminate Americans’ fair use right to non-commercial audio home recording. The fact that these copy-protected CDs will not play on many legacy players already in the home and on CD players today on the retail shelf, combined with the lack of adequate labeling, will inevitably lead to confused, frustrated and no doubt angry consumers.” Wired 03/15/02
• PRIVATE DEAL: “The record companies and Hollywood are scheming to drastically erode your freedom to use legally purchased CDs and videos, and they are doing it behind your back. The only parties represented in the debate are media and technology companies, lawyers and politicians. Consumers aren’t invited.” Wall Street Journal 03/15/02

BUYING BEETHOVEN’S NINTH: The Royal Philharmonic Society is selling 250 manuscript scores collected over 250 years. The collection includes the manuscript of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and the British Museum wants to buy it. Unable to come up with the money itself, the library is mounting a public fundraising campaign. “The library needs to raise £200,000 more to meet the £1 million asking figure for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s collection.” BBC 03/14/02 

CLASSICAL RADIO ALTERNATIVES: Classical music stations are going off the air as station licenses become more valuable and owners look for more profitable formats. That doesn’t mean classical listeners are going away – they’re just finding other outlets such as digital radio and the internet. Christian Science Monitor 03/15/02

108 YEARS OF MUSIC (OR WAS IT 109?): Leo Ornstein was one of the most innovative American composers of the 1920s – if you’d asked most music critics of the time, they probably would have pegged him as America’s brightest music prospect. But by the 1930s he had disappeared from the music scene. Doesn’t mean he died though. In fact, he didn’t die until a few weeks ago, at the age of 108 or 109 (the year is in dispute). The Economist) 03/14/02

SPEEDING TO THE BEAT: An Israeli researcher says drivers who listen to fast music in their cars may have “more than twice as many accidents as those listening to slower tracks.” The study demonstrated that while listening to fast music “drivers took more risks, such as jumping red lights, and had more accidents. When listening to up-tempo pieces, they were twice as likely to jump a red light as those who were not listening to music. And drivers had more than twice as many accidents when they were listening to fast tempos as when they listened to slow or medium-paced numbers.” New Scientist 03/130/02

Thursday March 14

REVOLUTIONARY STICK: How many conductors come along who can transform an orchestra? Outgoing BBC Scottish Orchestra music director Osmo Vanska is apparently one (he’s off to run the Minnesota Orchestra next). “The technical honing and transformation of the BBC SSO under his stewardship was never beyond description, but, at its best, still beggared belief. The musical revelations across a range of repertoire, even to sophisticated ears, have been breathtaking. The combined effect of the two developments, technical and musical, echoed to the highest reaches of the corporation, and beyond these shores.” How’d he do it? Relentlessness. “This guy is never going to give up; it’s better we play it his way so we can get home.” Glasgow Herald 03/12/02

BUSINESS CORRECTION: Even if classical music recording is on the wane, what does it really say about the health of the artform? Not much. “What’s left when the record companies, with all their marketers and middlemen, finally fade away is a world full of artists left to their own considerable devices, making records, not for the promise of nonexistent glory, but for the sake of the music. Recordings, I wager, will be fewer, but they will have been made with more of a sense of mission.” Andante 03/13/02

LUCRATIVE LIFE AFTER OPERA? There is much speculation that Pavarotti may be retiring from the opera stage. But not quitting. “The temptation to concentrate on concerts is not hard to understand. Last year he was paid a reputed £650,000 for singing at the Grand Theatre in Shanghai. The price will certainly not go down as retirement rumours abound.” The Independent (UK) 03/13/02

MUTI TO CONDUCT AT STEEL PLANT: After an embarrassingly public brouhaha that was less about music than a political catfight between a mayor and a Catholic church official, a major concert which will bring conductor Riccardo Muti back to his hometown of Naples has been moved to an abandoned steel factory on the outskirts of town. The organizers are doing their best to put a good spin on it, but nearly everyone involved is furious that the battling pols couldn’t or wouldn’t put aside their differences and allow the concert to proceed in a local church. Andante 03/14/02

BUILDING A BETTER COMPOSER: The hardest part about being a composer may be that no one ever tells you how to do it. You write works for dozens of instruments that you don’t really know how to play, and hope that everything works out. But a new seminar in Minneapolis aims to change the sharp learning curve many composers face. “The musical boot camp, unique in the United States, entailed more than the usual orchestral run-throughs. It involved seminars about copyrighting, licensing and public speaking; sessions about how to write grant applications and deal with unions and contracts, and workshops on how to write better for particular instruments.” Minneapolis Star Tribune 03/14/02

PULLING RANK: Critics are used to receiving furious replies to their reviews, and most have learned to let the barbs, jabs, and veiled threats roll of their backs. But it must have been a difficult moment for Washington Post reviewer Paul Hume back in 1950 when he received a scathing note from the father of a singer whom Hume had given a bad review. The father was none other than President Harry Truman, and the letter he wrote goes on auction at Christie’s this month. Washington Post 03/14/02

PUCCINI A LA BAZ: When Baz Luhrmann’s bohemian odyssey Moulin Rouge hit theaters last year, with its over-the-top theatrics and reworked pop songs, “some critics reached for rhapsodic analogies, others for aspirin bottles.” Luhrmann’s next project is a daring attempt to bring Puccini’s La Boheme to Broadway, and to do it without bastardizing the music as with Elton John’s Aida. “His idea is not exactly to reinvent La Boheme, but to make it accessible for audiences unschooled in the opera tradition.” The New York Times 03/14/02

Wednesday March 13

DESPERATELY SEEKING AN IDENTITY: Almost since its inception, New York’s City Opera has been the bastard stepchild of the Gotham opera scene. Overshadowed by the Met, ignored or reviled by its Lincoln Center masters, and confined to a ballet theater specifically designed to muffle sound, the company recently saw its fortunes turn with a massive gift towards the purchase or building of a new home. But even with the cash infusion, City Opera constantly runs the risk of seeming directionless, and must always struggle to be noticed in a city overflowing with culture. New York Observer 03/18/02

CLEANING UP THE OPERA WORLD: On the surface, it might seem that, without sex and violence, opera would suddenly become wholly uninteresting and, well, short. But with a recent proliferation of shocking, over-the-top productions in Britain’s opera houses, the incoming music director of the Royal Opera House felt the need to stress that he is a traditionalist, and will not use excessive theatrics to sell tickets. BBC 03/13/02

MENDELSSOHN FOR SALE: A handwritten copy of Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, thought to be worth $700,000is to be auctioned. There are three known manuscripts: “A copy of a version dated 1830 is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, and a slightly later autograph version titled Die Hebriden is in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City. Mendelssohn wrote a third version in preparation for a series of concerts in England in 1832, Sotheby’s said.” Nando Times (AP) 03/12/02

RADIO JUST ISN’T FOR MUSIC FANS: Blame it on a vast corporate conspiracy, a bad local program director, or anything you want, but radio’s small playlists and near-total unwillingness to play anything not backed up with reams of audience research and paid for by the big labels is unlikely to change anytime soon. So why do stations do it this way? Well, because most listeners seem to want nothing more than their favorite songs repeated over and over, and have no taste for experimentation. And the folks who run the stations admit that, if you’re a true music fan, you’re pretty much out of luck. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 03/13/02

Tuesday March 12

WHEN CONTROVERSY DOESN’T SELL: A controversial English National Opera production of Verdi’s Masked Ball that featured “male rape, transvestites, dwarves, Elvis impersonators and a row of chorus singers using the toilet without washing their hands” got lots of attention in the press last month. But it was something of a flop with audiences. The production sold few tickets. The Guardian (UK) 03/09/02

THE MISSING PAVAROTTI: The Metroplitan Opera has announced next year’s season, and “for the first time since the 1969-70 season, the Italian tenor is absent from the roster of singers scheduled to appear at the United States’ biggest opera company.” Yahoo! (AP) 03/11/02

QUILTING TO THE MUSIC: What do musicians do in the intermissions at the opera? At Chicago Lyric Opera, they make quilts. “The old-fashioned communal handiwork has been warmly embraced by the 31 women in the 75-member orchestra. Twenty-two of them have painstakingly pieced together 24 individual squares and nearly everyone else has sidled up to the frame to do a little needlework.” Chicago Tribune 03/12/02

Monday March 11

WHEN MODERN MUSIC WORKS: Michael Tilson Thomas is highly regarded as a champion of contemporary music. But there are genres of music he doesn’t perform. “If a music director doesn’t feel the spirit, why should he be compelled, out of a sense of obligation, to yield to pressure – especially if he can offer an alternate and more persuasive aesthetic? That Thomas has been permitted to flourish in his own manner and to fashion the San Francisco Symphony into a partner in his ventures has made audiences feel like collaborators, too, even when the score on the conductor’s desk requires a kind of unlearning on the part of the listener.” San Francisco Chronicle 03/10/02

WORDS ABOUT MUSIC: Monster, a new Scottish Opera about Mary Shelley and Frankenstein by Sally Beamish and Janice Galloway has revived a longstanding debate about the relationship between words and music in opera. “The libretto is elegant, the music full of beauty and invention. Why, then, does the combination not quite catch fire?” The Observer (UK) 03/10/02 

BROKEN RECORD: There is no good news for the recording industry. Sales are down, sound file piracy is rampant, a judge threatens to overthrow the Napster decision, and even the artists are rebelling against longstanding recording company deals. San Francisco Chronicle 03/10/02

MONTREAL’S LONG ROAD: The Montreal Symphony thought it had money for its new concert hall all locked up and ready to build several times in the past decade. There was the time the province’s premier flew to New York to hear the orchestra in Carnegie Hall and came away so impressed that he called up music director Charles Dutoit to guarantee the money. Then he resigned before it could happen. Now it appears the orchestra really will get its building. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/11/02

Sunday March 10

BUSINESS WITH PLEASURE: When Linda Hoeschler arrived at the Minnesota-based American Composers Forum in 1996, the group was in financial and organization trouble. Thanks to a savvy business approach, the organization has grown into a national presence and “its annual budget has climbed from less than $300,000 to more than $3 million. Fifteen staff members now administer more than a dozen programs, dishing out hundreds of grants annually and providing a range of other services to a swelling membership of more than 1,400 composers.” Minneapolis Star Tribune 03/10/02

GOING IT ALONE: The London Symphony’s Grammy win last month with a recording it produced on its own, is challenging the traditional recording industry model. “To get these albums, marketed at about $8 to $9 per disc, into the hands of consumers, LSO Live employs distributors in Britain and Japan, and as of late, Harmonia Mundi U.S.A. But more significant, the orchestra is also selling the CD’s directly through Internet outlets, including its own (www.lso.co.uk). To date, sales of “Les Troyens” have exceeded 30,000 sets.” The New York Times 03/10/02

GENDER BASHING THE VIENNA PHIL: Every time the Vienna Philharmonic comes to America, it faces protests that it hasn’t hired women players. This tour, the orchestra says progress has been made. The orchestra’s regular membership is still all male, but there are women substitutes. Critics charge that given the Philharmonic’s current pace, “it will take a generation or more for women in the Vienna Philharmonic to attain even the 5% to 10% representation he says is typical of other elite central European orchestras. The average is 30% in top U.S. orchestras.” Los Angeles Times 03/10/02

SINGULAR FRUSTRATION: Are recording companies encouraging piracy? Just try to buy a single song from a top-rated album. Singles aren’t being made anymore. “The bottom line is fear that singles cut into album sales. There are record company executives who believe that if you don’t put out a song as a single, then kids will buy an $18 CD to get the one song they want.” Boston Herald 03/08/02

BEATING UP THE PIT BAND: “It is widely held that ballet music is inferior to opera music, that the orchestra rarely plays its best for ballet, and that ballet music attracts the dimmer, less expensive conductors.” But maybe that’s the perception because of the way ballet scores are conducted. The Telegraph (UK) 03/10/02

Friday March 8

TURNING DOWN THE CLASSICAL: Making the rumors come true, New York public radio station WNYC has announced it will replace five hours a day of classical music programming with news and talk programming. “The changes — approved by an ‘overwhelming consensus’ of the board of trustees at a meeting yesterday, signify the transformation of WNYC from a quirky station operated by sometimes eccentric hosts to a public radio station of the modern age, one that is a serious business requiring significantly larger funds to keep on running.” The New York Times 03/08/02

WRECKING LA SCALA? Critics are sounding the alarm over La Scala’s renovations to its venerable home. “According to architect Mario Morganti and other experts, the renovation will cause more damage to the theater than did the Allied bombing during World War II. The process, he said, will be ‘more of a demolition than a restoration. Only an empty shell will survive’.” Andante 03/08/02

HOW TO BEAT THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: With the music industry so tightly controlled these days, right down to national radio playlists and ultra-formulaic album releases, it can be difficult for anything particularly creative to find success in wide release. But a group of talented youngsters from the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston may have broken through the clutter, with a compilation album of emerging artists backed by the school and, amazingly enough, a major label. The Christian Science Monitor 03/08/02

Thursday March 7

COPYRIGHT, COPYRIGHT, WHO’S GOT THE COPYRIGHT? A federal judge has told the record labels suing Napster “to produce documents proving they own the copyrights to 213 songs that once traded for free over the song-swapping service. It’s a last grasp to limit monetary damages in a case that has slowly gone against Napster since the service went offline in July.” Nando Times 02/06/02

MUSICAL PEACE PLEA CANCELED: Daniel Barenboim had planned to give a piano recital in the West bank city of Ramallah this week as his personal “plea for peace.” “But the Israeli army said it had banned all Israeli citizens from entering territory under sole Palestinian control and Mr Barenboim was no exception,” so the concert has been canceled. BBC 03/06/02

GIAN CARLO AT HOME: Is Gian Carlo Menotti the world’s favorite living opera composer? Maybe – probably that’s true in America. In Europe he’s probably better-known as founder of the Spoleto Festival. In Britain he’s not as well known – even though he’s lived there for 30 years. “His 40-room mansion, nestling in a vast estate that rolls away over the horizon, is classic 18th-century, designed by William Adam and his sons, Robert and John.” The Telegraph (UK) 03/07/02

Wednesday March 6

ARE WE ALL JUST THIEVES? “Despite a plethora of problems that have nothing to do with the Net, media executives are obsessed with the idea that their customers are shiftless pirates who want their wares for free. The world got a chance to sample this mind-set at the Grammys last week, when National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences head Michael Greene hijacked his own awards ceremony to rant Queegishly about music downloading, ‘the most insidious virus in our midst.’ (So much for HIV.)” Newsweek 03/11/02

SOUTH BANK REVIVAL? London’s Royal Festival Hall, has been given the okay to begin a massive renovation that many hope will be the start of a complete overhall of the South Bank arts centre, long considered something of a cultural embarrassment. “The auditorium’s much-criticised acoustics and technical facilities will be modernised and the seating made more comfortable.” BBC 03/06/02

Tuesday March 5

OVER THE EDGE: Though the Brooklyn Philharmonic has been much-praised artistically over the years, its financial operations have always been marginal. The slowing economy and September 11 only pushed the orchestra closer to the edge. Then, when the organization tried to cut costs by scaling back its concerts, the musicians revolted… “My biggest frustration is if we’re not playing together as an orchestra, what are we?” The New York Times 03/05/02

WHY THE MUSIC INDUSTRY SUCKS: Last week’s Grammy Awards demonstrated lots of reasons why the music industry is in such trouble. “Record executives must be among the slowest learners on the planet. Only 5 percent of major-label releases make a profit; a big company needs to sell 500,000 copies of a CD just to break even. Hmm: could any of this have to do with dumb decisions? Virgin Records bought Mariah Carey for $80 million in 2001, only to give her an extra $28 million last month to go away. Meanwhile, Sheryl Crow and Don Henley have felt compelled to found the new Recording Artists’ Coalition, an organization of high-profile performers hoping to protect musicians from their own labels.” Newsweek 03/11/02

• THE GRAMMYS WAR ON DOWNLOADERS: Recording Academy president Michael Greene would rather blame fans who download music over the internet for the industry’s problems: “No question the most insidious virus in our midst is the illegal downloading of music on the Net. It goes by many names and its apologists offer a myriad of excuses. This illegal file-sharing and ripping of music files is pervasive, out of control and oh so criminal. Many of the nominees here tonight, especially the new, less-established artists, are in immediate danger of being marginalized out of our business.” Grammy.com 02/27/02

AIMING AT THOSE WHO DON’T COME TO CONCERTS: On the hunt for new audiences, the Colorado Symphony has begun a new series of concerts called CulturalConvergence. The series “will consist of culturally diverse concerts that combine orchestral music with dance, literature, theater and video, and incorporate production elements that are rarely encountered in conventional concerts. ‘The point is, we can be very pure. But unless the Colorado Symphony has sold out every seat of every concert in the subscription season, it may be necessary to think about some other ways of reaching people.” Denver Post 03/05/02

SLATKIN STAYING AT NATIONAL: Leonard Slatkin has renewed his contract as music director of the National Symphony for three more years. By then he will have led the orchestra for 10 years. “Slatkin’s present contract was set to expire at the conclusion of the 2002-2003 season.” Washington Post 03/05/02

Monday March 4

LEARNING FROM THE PHILLY DISASTER: Was the opening of the Philadelphia Orcehstra’s new concert hall a “fiasco”? The LA Times’ Mark Swed says yes, and directs a warning to all those who open new halls in the future – learn from Philly’s mistakes. From impatience to programming to over-long opening speeches, Philadelphia is a textbook case of how not to open a new home. Los Angeles Times 03/04/02

FORMAT LOCK: The soundtrack to the movie O Brother has sold more than 4 million copies, was one of 2001’s 10 best-selling albums, the year’s best-selling country album, and it won a Grammy last week for best soundtrack. A live tour of music from the movie has sold out quickly. And yet, you won’t hear any of the music on American radio. Why? It has something to do with formats… Denver Post 03/04/02

COMPUTER MUSIC ONSTAGE: Tired of seeing sheet music fall or blow away during performances, Harry Connick Jr. bought computers for his band on which scores scroll by. Now he’s received a patent for the “system and method for coordinating music display among players in an orchestra.” “Oh man, it’s made my life easier,” Mr. Connick said. “Before, I would write out a song by hand and give it to a couple of guys in the band who are copyists and they would figure out the instrumental sections. It could take days. Now I can write a new score in the morning and everyone has it on his computer screen in the afternoon. Imagine if a Duke Ellington or a Stravinsky had had a system like that.” The New York Times 03/04/02

OPERA GOES ON: Musicians of the striking Edmonton Sympony have struck a private deal with the city’s opera company to play for next week’s performances of Of Mice and Men. “The deal with the union effectively does an end run around ESO management and gives the striking musicians two weeks of work.” Edmonton Journal 03/02/02

HOMAGE A SLAVA: Mstislav Rostropovich has led an extraordinary life. He is a cellist who has not only performed some of the most important music written for the instrument in the 20th century but has also been directly involved in its creation. However, it is as a political dissident – and now almost a modern icon – on a par with Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov that Rostropovich has made the most impact on the wider public consciousness.” The Guardian (UK) 03/02/02

Sunday March 3

THE END OF MUSIC AS WE KNOW IT? Pop musicians are joining up to break the “tyranny” of  music industry contracts. “If this pop-star labour movement is able to overcome the anarchy and dissension of music’s fractious communities, it could put an end to the music business as we know it. It is a little-understood drama that is pummelling the giant music conglomerates just as they are beginning to collapse under their own weight. The next few years could mark the end of Big Music, an institution that has promoted homogeneity and poor taste for decades.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/02/02

SAMPLE THIS: It wasn’t that long ago that musicians were railing against rappers sampling their music to make new songs. The practice is a staple of hip hop. Then the practice became highly regulated (and lucrative). “Now more than ever, it’s the sellers who are actively trying to get established and up-and-coming musicians interested in picking up a beat, a musical fragment, or a snippet of lyrics. Yet the selling price of samples has some artists saying they’re not in the market to buy anymore. ”It’s costing too much to get clearances, and sometimes it’s easier to just do your own music’.” Boston Globe 03/03/02

BITING THE BARBICAN: “Few buildings in Britain can have been as persistently tinkered with over the years as the Barbican. The concert hall, in particular, feels as if it has been work in progress for large parts of the past two decades. The centre’s insoluble problem is that it has no real entrance and no outward profile.” And then there’s the location… Can anyone love this arts center? The Guardian (UK) 03/02/02

TURNING DOWN THE OPERA FOR BUSINESS REASONS: Belfast’s Grand Opera House is generally acknowledged by all who use it to be too small and inadequate for the heavy use it currently gets. So the management came up with a plan to buy the property next door and expand, a plan it thinks will solve the theatre’s plans. “But the Arts Council does not agree. Last month it turned down the Opera House scheme, claiming the application was ‘of insufficient business quality’ to warrant the investment of public funds.” Belfast Telegraph 03/02/02

Friday March 1

CITY OPERA AT WTC? New York City Opera is talking to other New York cultural institutions about building a major new arts center on the site of the World Trade Center. “City Opera officials caution that their planning is in its early stages and that they have not made a decision to go forward. But they have attracted interest from the Joyce Theater, the Chelsea-based home of contemporary dance, in becoming involved in the project, which in one configuration would include a 2,200- seat opera house for itself, a 900-seat dance space and possibly a museum.” The New York Times 02/28/02

RATTLE IN BERLIN: Simon Rattle takes over the Berlin Philharmonic podium later this year. The Berlin Phil is possibly the world’s most prestigious orchestra. But is it possible the orchestra needs Rattle more than he needs it? “Perhaps it will send a signal that the times are indeed changing and that the symphonic music business needs to get with the times in order to maintain some relevance. It signals a dramatic shift in the mythology and mystery surrounding the role of the conductor – from an unapproachable, distantly enigmatic, eccentric figure to a proactive, hands-on, engaging human being that musicians and the public can relate to!” Christian Science Monitor 03/01/02

BROKEN ON PURPOSE: Recording companies are starting to produce CD’s that can’t be played on computers or players that can copy them. Consumers are protesting, but an industry spokesperson says: “If technology can be used to pirate copyrighted content, shouldn’t technology likewise be used to protect copyrighted content? Surely, no one can expect copyright owners to ignore what is happening in the marketplace and fail to protect their creative works because some people engage in copying just for their personal use.” The New York Times 03/01/02

REINVENTING OPERA: How much liberty ought an opera director or producer have in setting an opera. Updating and reinterpreting are popular right now, and they can help an audience see a piece in a new way. On the other hand, some rethinking distracts from the the work itself. But how far is too far? Chicago Tribune 02/28/02

THE SEASON THAT ALMOST WASN’T: The most impressive aspect of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s 2002-03 season is that it exists at all, “a major achievement for an organization that just three months ago was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, had no artistic director (it still doesn’t), and watched helplessly while its management stampeded for the exits.” Even more important, the season’s programming has been crafted around the coming acoustic renovation of the much-maligned Roy Thompson Hall. National Post (Canada) 03/01/02