Category: music

If Rob Gibson wasn’t fired as the director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, why did the organization hastily arrange to have the locks and computer codes changed right after he left? As usual though, everyone’s speaking well of the dearly departed. – New York Times

The long-awaited new edition of the New Grove music dictionary – the definitive music reference work, has mistakenly killed off Gilles Tremblay, one of Canada’s most well-known composers. “Naturally, these mistakes do happen, but that’s a particularly bad one. We really do try not to kill people off if at all possible.” – CBC

When they stood up and booed Harrison Birtwistle’s “Gawain” at the Royal Opera House, they were branded “musical terrorists,” protesting Birtwistle’s gnarly music. Subsequently they were known as “The Hecklers”, fighting against modern music by disrupting high-profile performances. But “when a national newspaper labelled Keith Burstein, one of the co-founders of the group, a heckler, he angrily claimed it was ‘an outright lie’. He successfully sued for libel and was awarded £8,000.” – The Scotsman

Fans understand Napster’s just trying to survive, but its alliance with corporate biggies and the likelihood it will start charging turns fans off. “Napster is just one of many ways for people to get music. It can easily be substituted with a similar service. Its not about Napster, its about what it can do for me – even though I do love Napster.” – Chicago Tribune

“More than any other composer, Bach revealed within this language the immense power of the small detail, the significance each motif could have within the tonal language: he can make his contemporaries seem insipid. Nevertheless, in addition to the grand and even startlingly original effects of his imagination conceived throughout his life, he was able to demonstrate the latent expressive force that resided in pure craftsmanship, in a simple technical competence that amounted to genius.” – New York Review of Books

American cellist works on a tour with the Moscow Symphony. “On what orchestra members say was their most grueling tour in years, he put up with conditions that would have prompted unionized American musicians to go on strike. For Russian musicians it was all in a day’s work.” – New York Times

The Australian Art Orchestra has made a deal with the Sydney Opera House. “The partnership means that, over the next three years, the Sydney Opera House will produce a series of events and opportunities for the Art Orchestra. The Australian Art Orchestra will retain its name, but will be known as `The Sydney Opera House presents the Australian Art Orchestra’.” – The Age (Melbourne)

REACHING OUT: Sydney Opera House’s “branding opportunity” with the Melbourne orchestra is an attempt by the Opera House to further establish itself as a fully functional performing arts centre.” – Sydney Morning Herald

Deutsche Grammophon and its parent company, Universal, take the prize for chutzpah after finking out on John Eliot Gardiner in the middle of his massive cantata cycle – the Bach Pilgrimage, as it was called. The British conductor and his musicians have been spending the year dragging themselves through Europe and the United States, trying to perform all 198 of Bach’s surviving cantatas, each one on the particular day of the liturgical year for which it was written – some 90 concerts in 15 countries, all in ‘interesting’ churches. The plan was that DGG would record them all and release one a week. But last July the record company decided it was all a tad pricey and pulled out, leaving the already cash-strapped Gardiner and his merry band of musicians scrambling for funds.” – National Post (Canada)

Just when it looked like MP3.com had settled its legal woes with recording companies, independent labels have taken the company to court. “Although MP3.com has entered into settlement agreements with the five major record labels, they have chosen to ignore their infringing actions with respect to independent labels.” – Wired

Thirty years after they disbanded, the Beatles are hot again. “Their greatest hits album, “1”, has now topped the charts in 30 countries around the world. Just five weeks after being released, the album of their 27 chart toppers has sold 12 million copies.” – The Globe & Mail (Canada) (Reuters)