Category: music

Pianist Oscar Peterson has become the first Canadian recipient of the International Music Council UNESCO Music Prize. “The prize is given every year to a musician or musical institution that has contributed to the development and enrichment of music and has served peace and understanding around the world.” – CBC

For awhile it looked like conductor Simon Rattle might be the Philadelphia Orchestra’s new music director. But then Rattle went ahead and agreed to take on the Berlin Philharmonic. The conductor’s recorded debut with that orchestra is a hint at what might have been. – Philadelphia Inquirer

The Boston Symphony – needing to replace music director Seiji Ozawa – had resigned itself to being an also-ran in the Rattle sweepstakes. But now news that Rattle’s marriage with Berlin might be on the rocks even before it begins, has the Bostonians hopeful again. –Boston Herald

J.S. Bach’s complete oeuvre, including manuscripts and digitized scores, will soon be stored online in a digital library accessible over the Internet (at www.bachdigital.org). The project is a collaboration among IBM, the Berlin State Library, and other libraries across Germany. – Nandotimes (Agence France-Presse)

Jazz is suddenly getting a lot of attention in the institutional world. “But what exactly is being honored: a music of unceasing innovation and achievement, or an archive parsed into its historical components? If jazz in the 21st century is to become what classical music became in the 20th century, an art of reconnaissance and interpretation, then last month’s 2000 JVC Jazz Festival may be remembered as a key transitional event.” – Village Voice

When people think of Brazilian music, bossa nova, samba, and the strains of Carnival come to mind, while Brazil’s classical composers (namely Heitor Villa-Lobos, Lorenzo Fernandez, Camargo Guarnieri) are often overlooked. “Why has it taken so long for them to gain any recognition abroad? Brazil, now officially 500 years old, is a relatively young nation and came late to classical music. – The Herald (Scotland)

More than 400 personal items once belonging to opera diva Maria Callas will be auctioned in Paris in December. The auction itself will also be open to Internet bidders using the site www.leftbid.com. – New York Times

The classical music world has found countless ways to commemorate this year’s 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach’s death. “But musicians from the other side of the musical tracks, including Dave Brubeck and Jacques Loussier, have been gate-crashing the party as well. A sign of our enlightened times, or another case of dumbing down?” – The Times (UK)

Recently knighted conductor Andrew Davis – chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the past 11 years and musical director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera for the last 12 – will step down from both posts in September to move to the Chicago Lyric Opera. It’s certainly a plum job, but so were the two he’s walking away from and his English following is far from pleased with his decision. “Rarely can one musician’s career have been woven so deeply into this country’s musical life.” – The Telegraph (UK)

St. Petersburg’s White Nights Festival is the brainchild of Valery Gergiev, artistic director of the Kirov, based in the Mariinsky Theatre. The festival “provides an intensive dose of music and opera against the crumbling backdrop of Russia’s intellectual capital, at a fraction of the cost of rival events further to the west. Alongside War and Peace, one of this year’s highlights is Prokofiev’s opera ‘Semyon Kotko’, a four-hour epic with a difficult history that combines some challenging music with a heavy dose of Soviet-era ideology.” – Culturekiosque