Category: music

“Up close, the latest offering from architect Frank Gehry looks like a cross between a giant spaceship and globs of playdough.” – National Post (Canada)

For decades Philadelphia has talked about a new concert hall. Now the ground has been broken and one is being built. But there are still issues – the Philadelphia Orchestra still hasn’t signed a contract to use it. And then there’s money – where’s the rest of it going to come from to complete the thing? – Philadelphia Inquirer

Dutch violinist-turned-conductor Andre Rieu has “stumbled onto a magic formula for bringing classical music to what are snobbishly called ‘the masses.’ His CDs – like his latest, `100 Years of Strauss,’ on the Philips label – are instant bestsellers. Videos of his concerts with his 35-piece Johann Strauss Orchestra are PBS fund-raising staples. And spectacle is the word most people use to describe his live shows.” –  Boston Herald

The FTC estimates consumers may have paid as much as $480 million more than they should have for CDs the last three years because of what is known as the Minimum Advertised Price program. Last fall, compact disc prices hit an all-time high of $18.98. Yet artists usually make less than $2 for every CD sold, once they’ve repaid the record label for recording and promotional expenses. That’s why Metallica’s decision to go after their own fans for downloading Metallica music off the Internet is so absurd. Musicians moan about fans ripping them off via the Internet, but the true villains are the record companies who shortchange artists and overcharge record buyers. – Chicago Tribune

The recording rights organization BMI announces a plan to license internet companies to be able to play music over the net. “The licenses give Internet companies the right to perform publicly all of BMI’s 4.5 million copyrighted works from its 250,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers.” – Wired

Frank Gehry’s swoopy droopy Experience Music Project (please don’t call it a museum) is opening soon in Seattle. Says Gehry: “This building is supposed to be a lot of fun. That’s what Paul Allen wanted. Fun. It’s supposed to be unusual. The (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum) in Cleveland wanted a straight-forward corporate look. Paul didn’t want that. He wanted what he called a swoopy building. Nobody has seen this before or will see it again. Nobody will build another one.” – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Colin Matthews’ new Pluto movement to finish up Holst’s “The Planets” finally gets a hearing. Though there’s no evidence Holst ever intended to write a “Pluto,” Matthews has completed the job. “Trying to replicate Holst’s musical style would have risked producing a feeble pastiche, so Matthews has composed as himself, yet he doffs his cap affectionately in some smaller respects.” – Financial Times

In less than five years since Paul Kellogg has turned around the fortunes of New York City Opera. When he became the company’s artistic and general director in 1996, the company was $5 million debt, “had lost its sense of artistic direction and was coping emotionally with the death from AIDS of its previous director, the conductor Christopher Keene.” Now, in a miraculous turnaround, the debt is gone, and the company’s artistic purpose is clear. – New York Times

There’s evidence that the internet music revolution will affect classical music sooner than it does more mainstream genres. The little stores specializing in particular genres are having a hard time. “A master track can be held in a central store; copies made only as required. Libraries no longer need specialist retailers: they can e-mail their orders to record companies directly and get a disc (copied to whatever digital format required) by return. No more need to search for out-of-print back-catalogue. Everything can be held as digital information, ready for duplication, at a record company’s own central store.” – The Scotsman

Is Napster going too far in trying to avoid legal troubles? A backlash against the company is developing among its fans. “Napster is fighting against censorship, but they are trying to censor everybody else.” – Wired