Category: music

Carnegie Hall’s top administrator, buffeted by the recent resignations of four senior staff and the general unhappiness of the Hall’s workers, suddenly resigned Tuesday. He’ll move to a similar position with the Berlin Philharmonic in his native Germany. – Nando Times (AP)

ROUGH TIME: “His tenure there was stormy, partly because of what critics called an autocratic management style, but yesterday he denied that problems at Carnegie Hall led him to leave.” – New York Times

UNFULLFILLED POTENTIAL? “Mr. Ohnesorg probably didn’t have enough time to implement what, as far as I understood, were very exciting ideas. The Berlin Philharmonic is very lucky to get him.” – Washington Post

Although notoriously reluctant to give interviews, pianist Alfred Brendel granted rare access to a BBC film crew for a movie celebrating his 70^th birthday. “Somehow it dawned on me that the world is absurd. And that art is the antidote to the world. Art gives a sense of order against the chaos of our surroundings.” – The Telegraph (UK)

The Three Tenors’ concerts have long since become boilerplate gigs for the rich and fatuous, scripted down to the last medley-encore. Booming amplification makes their voices hover over the orchestra like surreal, singing whales; they could just as well be up there lip-synching to their recordings, and, one suspects, the fans would be just as happy. – Chicago Tribune

The US Congress has approved a $1 million matching grant to construct a New York-based jazz museum. But “competition in fund-raising with other jazz institutions seems inevitable. Last May, for example, the Jazz at Lincoln Center organization announced plans for a $103 million home at Columbus Circle that is to include a Jazz Hall of Fame along with performance and rehearsal spaces and a classroom.”  – New York Times

“The celestial jukebox, according to its legions of proponents, will be a vast digital cloud of music that contains every song ever recorded. Rather than having to lug around compact disks and cassettes to stick in stereos or car players, people will be able to log onto the celestial jukebox from computers, televisions, stereos, automobiles, cell phones and even household appliances.” Trouble is, it’ll never work. – Inside.com

Fifty-four composers, including Elliott Carter, Steve Reich, Joan Tower, Chen Yi, Stephen Sondheim, John Zorn, Wynton Marsalis and Meredith Monk will convene in New York for an unprecedented nine-concert festival. ‘A Great Day in New York.’ The series was partly inspired by the classic 1959 photograph ‘A Great Day in Harlem’ which brought together some of the great jazz players of the day.” – Sonicnet

Ken Burns’s new 20-hour documentary on jazz gives a distorted view. “For example, the last forty years, i.e. forty percent, of jazz history is crammed into one two hour segment. Therefore, the series, while it may contain some illuminating and/or entertaining portions, is unbalanced and cannot be taken too seriously, as it emphasizes material most familiar to most viewers and does not expose them to today’s music.” – Public Arts

Canadian government imposes a tax on recordable CDs and cassettes to “reimburse performers whose works are copied in homes for private use.” – CBC

The English National Opera dramatizes Verdi’s “Requiem.” Okay, but stripping off clothes to reveal all on the stage? “Nudity in opera is nothing new (Maria Ewing stripped off as Salome in 1988) but a naked mum-to-be is a first, I think. It was a strange context for such a familiar image.” – The Independent (UK)

“Most orchestras are still wedded to the time-honored image of a paternalistic European music director steeped in the Romantic tradition. And as luck would have it, right now there simply aren’t enough of those guys to go around.” So how about a new approach? How about some moxie and inventiveness? – San Francisco Chronicle