Category: music

Resignations from the competition’s executive and controversy about not using an Australian piano, mar the competition – and yes, all three Australian pianists competing made the quarter finals. – Sydney Morning Herald

The fourth annual Sydney Cabaret Convention has certainly demonstrated there are a multitude of performers out there who can manage cabaret as a technical feat. But there is a lot more to it than technique and tamed facility. Like all live performance, cabaret should be extraordinary. And at this convention, you got seven minutes (two songs and a bit of chat) to prove your worth. – Sydney Morning Herald

Last year’s amalgamation of the National Opera, based in Wellington, and Auckland’s Opera New Zealand was only the latest attempt to create a sustainable opera company in New Zealand. Costs and staff were cut, and now a production of “Aida” is the first big test. – New Zealand Herald

Composer Astor Piazzolla’s distinctive tango music has become a world-wide phenomenon. But “while his music won an enthusiastic following in Europe, the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, Piazzolla was not widely appreciated in his native Argentina until a decade before he died in 1992. Instead, his tampering with a native form as sacrosanct as the tango earned an intensity of contempt from the music’s old guard that may be difficult to fathom in this country, where disagreements over style and genre exercise only a handful of artists and critics.” – The New Republic

• Earlier this spring Pinchas Zukerman was quoted in a Toronto newspaper as saying he “hates” early music; that early music is “disgusting … and complete rubbish, and [so are] the people who play it.” Do Zukerman’s comments suggest “an emerging trend of negative public statements by modern conductors who are very suspicious of early music practices and performances and of period instruments?” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“World music grows ever more popular. There is hardly a country on earth that has not had its indigenous music marketed to Western record-buyers. But, for some of the artists, acclaim, and the wealth it generates, can spell trouble. So it proved on my trip to North Africa, a visit that had promised a glimpse into the origins of music itself, but that ended up shining a light on musicians embroiled in a violent struggle over the rather less than spiritual matters of copyright, brand ownership, and, above all, money.” – The Telegraph (UK)

A young Cuban band was supposed to play in the Montreal and Toronto Jazz Festivals this week. But when the Halifax musician who organized the tour tried to wire money for plane tickets to Havana, the bank accidentally sent the funds through its New York office, where the money was seized. “American law demands any funds going to Cuba must be held by the Office of Foreign Assets. The bank tried to correct the error, but it was too late to pay for the airline tickets.” – CBC

Now, at least, there are some female conductors working. But they’re often not treated well, and they’re held to different standards than their male counterparts. “There is no shortage of male conductors who turn up with a half-read score and get away with a self-deprecating grin and a round of drinks. But with a female conductor, orchestras are less tolerant.” – The Telegraph (UK)

It’s the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death, and performances abound. But how to perform the music? “Choirs, even the compact 12-to-16 voice ensembles accepted as ‘authentic’ in period-instrument circles, are anachronisms and inventions – modern-day hybrids that have nothing to do with J. S. Bach’s actual practice, and are as much a misrepresentation of the composer’s intentions as performing Beethoven’s string quartets with a string orchestra would be.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

The greed? The commercialization? The changing economics of Napster et al? Nope –  it’s “this idea that you have to be young to be valuable, that’s the downfall of music. There’s very little appreciation for growth. You think about crafts where elders are respected, and people are dedicated to the idea of getting better. Seems like that’s no longer what being involved with music is about.” – Philadelphia Inquirer