Category: music

Claudio Abbado cancels out of a European tour with the Berlin Philharmonic because he’s still recovering from emergency ulcer surgery last month. – Ottawa Citizen

Franz Welser-Möst survived his six-year tenure as conductor of the London Philharmonic – but just barely. Installed as music director at age 29, he made sweeping (and unpopular) changes, saw three managing directors unseated in his six years,  and was dubbed “Frankly Worse Than Most” by his critics. Now, four years after his departure, he’s back on top – head of Zurich Opera, and about to take on the Cleveland – and finally able to reflect on his difficult past. – The Telegraph (UK)

What became of the German Jewish musicians who escaped to Australia during WWII? Those who were not allowed to join State orchestras because they didn’t hold Australian citizenship became cooks, confectioners, parachute zipper designers…and later went on to found some of Australia’s finest musical groups. – Sydney Morning Herald

Is the internet helping to increase the popularity of classical music? The music download site MP3 reported last month that “classical music was the fourth most popular music genre at its site, adding that its popularity is fueled by the fact that classic musicians are offering their music for free at the site.” – Digitrends

Hollywood has the capacity to excite the public about just about anything – which is why NASA has been bending over backwards to help Hollywood make its space movies more authentic. It goes something like this: if people get space-crazy, NASA may get more support from Congress. – The Age (Melbourne) (AP)

A new film video “shows 18 historical pianists in action – from silent black-and-white footage from the 1920s (Vladimir Horowitz, Artur Rubinstein, Wilhelm Backhaus) to performances by the aged Sviatoslav Richter and Claudio Arrau, filmed in the 1990s.” – National Post (Canada)

Los Angeles Opera signed Placido Domingo to run the company and last week tickets went on sale for his first season. The company racked up record ticket sales – $186,263 in single tickets – on the first day they were available.  “This number marked an increase of some 74 percent over the previous record of $107,177, set on the first day of sales for the 1998-99 season.” – Orange County Register

Why do singers rarely enunciate their words? “Here’s my theory: Superficiality sells. Witness Charlotte Church and Andrea Bocelli, who sing in their respective native languages but with a single vocal emotion – girlish innocence in the former, Byronic longing in the latter. Forget shifting moods; Bocelli’s linguistic commitment is so absent he sometimes seems to be singing phonetically. I’m seeing the phenomenon everywhere. Commercial classical radio plays only the smoothest performances of the smoothest pieces; opera singers are all but banned. In the composing world, the backlash to modernism seems to be music that sounds nice and means little.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

In 1714 Vivaldi premiered his new opera “Orlando Finto Pazzo.” But it got such disastrous reviews, the composer put it away and it was never performed again – until now. – The Guardian

After 44 years John Crosby is stepping down as head of the remarkable Santa Fe Opera. “His retirement this month comes close upon several more publicized recent or upcoming retirements – Peter Hemmings from the Los Angeles Opera, Lotfi Mansouri from the San Francisco – but it may be the more significant milestone.” – Washington Post