Even with Franz Schubert’s great successes writing for the voice, his 11 attempts at opera never got him very far. One is being staged in Garsington now. What’s it like? “Schubert was one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived, yet there are only two arias in two-and-a-half hours of music. The whole opera has been conceived in terms of vast blocks of end-to-end ensemble: which are incredibly rich in their musical development, but at the same time make the opera a total nightmare to stage.” – The Guardian
Category: music
ON THE OTHER HAND…
Composer John Duffy and New York Times sports columnist Robert Lipsyte have written an opera about Muhammed Ali. “Ali was poetic and prophetic,” said Duffy, who before becoming an acclaimed composer was an amateur boxer. – Sonicnet
COMPETING RIGHTS
The hottest issue in the music business right now is how to protect recordings from being pirated. Music rights organization BMI announces a new international pact to track royalties, but ASCAP has its own international deal. Why don’t they work together? – Wired
OLDER BUT LESS CLASSICAL
“Ten years ago shoppers over age 35 purchased just 29 percent of records, according to the RIAA. By 1999 that number had jumped to 44 percent, good for $6 billion worth of music sales. Yet despite this unique chance to market to a wave of music-buying adults who, according to one recent survey, buy an average of 20 CDs each every year, sales indicators suggest these 30-, 40- and even 50-something parents remain cool to jazz and classical.” – Salon
THE LIE OF THE BIG FIVE
Traditionally America’s Big Five orchestras – Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago – were thought to be the best. Maybe they’re best ion budget, writes Norman Lebrecht, but “money cannot buy artistic excellence. The Big Five, as a musical indicator, amounts to a big lie. Let’s hear no more of it.” – The Telegraph (UK)
TWO PARAGRAPHS ON THE DRESS – ONLY ONE ON THE MUSIC
Musical prodigies face a range of issues beyond music. No one pays attention only to how they play – you have to look and act the part. – Sonicnet
THE REAL STRAVINSKY
For a good part of the 20th Century Igor Stravinsky was considered the greatest composer of the era. But “by the time of his death in 1971 the plaudits of the mass media were out of sync with the opinions of musical tastemakers in Europe and America; these dismissed him as a diehard reactionary who had waited too long to acknowledge the historical inevitability of atonality. But the tastemakers were wrong, and with the restoration of tonality and the demise of the atonal avant-garde, Stravinsky’s music has once again returned to the limelight.” – Commentary
DOING THE CONTINENTAL SWING
Recent European jazz albums suggest that the innovation in jazz is coming from the Old World and not from America. “Almost without anybody noticing, European jazz, regarded for years by the Americans with the same kind of tolerant smile they reserve for Japanese baseball, seems poised to step to the forefront.” – The Times (UK)
BRITAIN’S OPERA HOPE
The hip new opera in London last season was – of all things – a piece about soccer. Mark-Anthony Turnage, the “Silver Tassie’s” composer, “has emerged as one of the great hopes of English classical music – a natural extension of an extraoridnary line that runs through such fertile counties as Elgar, Walton, Bridge, Britten and Tippitt.” – Sequenza 21
FASTER LOUDER STRONGER
The Sydney International Piano Competition opens. But criticism is rife, and charges of scandal abound. “No one, of course, will ever hear of any of the SIPCA prizewinners. They all seem to have had rather too close connections with various members of the jury, which in any case is mostly comprised of lacklustre teachers who … wouldn’t recognise good and original artistry if it jumped up and bit them.” – The Age (Melbourne)