Category: music

The movie-score recording business is down considerably in Los Angeles. “The slump may, in part, reflect a general reduction in orchestral scores, replaced by pop and rock songs, especially in films aimed at the huge teen audience. In part, it may also be a result of the cutbacks in studio production overall. But…the downturn also indicates that production companies are increasingly heading to London, Seattle, Prague, even Moscow to record scores less expensively.” – Los Angeles Times

Four years ago pianist Keith Jarrett was struck with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so severe it all but ended his career. He could barely get out of bed. Now he’s back and talking about it. “Nobody gets CFS who isn’t always trying to do three or four things at a time. If you’re a couch potato, I don’t think you’d be likely to get this. So if you’re doing something new that’s almost an athletic event, and then inside it is this intellectual and emotional component that requires all your abilities every time you do it, and you’re starting from zero every time… well, it’s almost a perfect disease for me to have gotten.” – The Guardian

“The notion that artists don’t have to be as beautiful as the works they create is a commonplace now – except in the case of Wagner. But those who seek to exonerate Wagner by differentiating between the composer and the pamphleteer have another problem: the argument that anti-semitism underpins not only his philosophy, but his music.” – The Guardian

“As the recording industry and commercial artists try to stamp out the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted music in the form of computer files known as MP3’s, tens of thousands of aspiring rock stars are happily using the technology to give their music away – and more than a few are beginning to see some payoff.” – New York Times

Publisher Theodore Presser, which has been selling music for almost 250 years, says it will begin issuing scores on CD-ROM. The first 15 CD-ROMs include the complete piano solos of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Mozart, Schumann. By the end of 2002, the company plans to sell a series of 110 disks – cost: about $15 each. – Chicago Tribune

• Now that Riccardo Muti has turned down the job as music director of the New York Philharmonic, speculation turns to other candidates, with Pittsburgh’s Mariss Jansons a leading candidate. Or might it be Christoph Eschenbach? – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Who will replace Seiji Ozawa as Boston Symphony music director? “It’s Episode One of WGBH-TV’s new reality show, “Symphony Survivor.” Ten conductors, armed with nothing more than the white-tie-and-tails on their backs, their batons and their cell phones, are about to be locked inside Symphony Hall for nine weeks.” – Boston Herald

A reporter tries out EMI’s new download scheme (the record company began selling its music over the internet Tuesday) and comes away wringing his hands. “The results of this sampling of the new, legitimate download frontier aren’t really surprising. Although EMI took steps to work out the kinks ahead of time, it’s clear that the kinks, especially on the backend, are substantial.” – Inside.com

The New York Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti say that Muti won’t be taking over as music director of the orchestra. Muti had been offered the job but concluded he didn’t have the time to devote to leading the large American orchestra. – New York Times

Soprano Monserrat Caballe surprised her audience in Bucharest by ripping up the score belonging to the conductor accompanying her, after the orchestra twice fell out of step with her. The conductor later claimed a misprint in the score. – Chicago Sun-Times (AP)