Category: music

Copyright Control Services is in the business of stamping out the pirating of music on the internet. In a year, the group says, it has closed down 5,000 internet sites. – Wired

Covent Garden’s now-famous technical problems with its renovated building have brought renewed focus on some longstanding issues: Ticket prices are scandalously high for a publicly-funded company. And the work being produced is old and recycled. The sniff of revolt is in the air. – London Sunday Times

A new auditorium is being carved out below Carnegie Hall’s historic main hall. – New York Times

Three new boxed set recordings of the Beethoven Piano Concertos illustrate what’s wrong with the classical recording industry. All three are by Alfred Brendel, and the works are not exactly underrepresented in the catalogue. So who thought this was a good idea? – Toronto Globe and Mail

That’s not what Cubans are listening to these days. Though it’s nice to see old-time Cuban musicians conquer the world’s stages with their “heritage” music, these days the island prefers something considerably harder – salsa and “new trova.” – Daily Mail and Guardian (South Africa)

Under the present government, funding for the arts in South Africa has dwindled. Last week the National Symphony Orchestra went out of business. One of the country’s top theaters is next if help isn’t forthcoming, warns a prominent director. – Artstar.com (AFP)

– it is losing $4.5 billion this year in lost sales because of counterfeit CDs and music downloaded over the internet. – Wired

The Emerson String Quartet’s David Finckel and his wife, pianist Wu Han, couldn’t find a recording company that wanted to work the way they did. So they hired their own studio and began producing recordings on their own. Now they edit themselves and the music is available over the internet. – Cleveland Plain Dealer

Researcher (author of the “Mozart Effect” study) predicts a revolution in teaching – why learning music increases other skills he’s not quite sure, but he says he can demonstrate it does with new studies underway in Los Angeles schools. – Orange County Register

It’s official – the redo of Covent Garden is a disaster. Technical failures, cancellations, disgruntled unions and artists. Even the audiences have begun to boo. Much was riding on a smooth reopening, but a growing chorus of discontent threatens to become deafening. – London Telegraph

• And: GET A BETTER SOCIAL MIX: Senior management at the Covent Garden opera house in London have been told to reduce their ticket prices and “get a better social mix, particularly in the stalls, so it doesn’t feel so snooty”. Meanwhile, latest cancellation due to technical difficulties is jeered by audience. – Sydney Morning Herald 01/26/00
• Previously: CALL TO CLOSE COVENT GARDEN: Musicians’ and technicians’ unions call for temporary closure of troubled Covent Garden to deal with technical problems. Rebuilt opera house has been plagued with technical equipment failures since reopening last month. – The Independent 01/24/00 
• And: Don’t blame Opera House staff, blame those in charge. – The Observer 01/24/00