Category: music

Tuesday’s much-anticipated opening night staging of Birtwistle’s “Gawain,” was interrupted 20 minutes into the performance when a stage manager came out to announce that a number of pieces of equipment were not working properly, and request a 30-minute recess to try and wrestle it back to order. “What was striking was the brazenness with which the young stage manager interrupted the singers and orchestra and the matter-of-factness with which he announced that Covent Garden’s much-vaunted new technology had failed yet again.” – BBC Music Magazine

Bernard Holland wants so much to like John Harbison’s “Great Gatsby” at the Met, you almost feel sorry for him. It has everything going for it, he writes. So why does it seem so small? – New York Times

Log in and tune up. New internet site offers interactive group guitar lessons over the internet. – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Overall recorded music sales went up 6.1 percent last year. But country music sales fell 4.5 percent. “We’re no longer the fad of the moment.” – Cleveland Plain Dealer (AP)

America’s concert hall announces next year’s season – 140 events, with 22 visiting national and international orchestras. – New York Times

Cleveland’s Severance Hall has long had a reputation for good acoustics. So after an extensive $37 million renovation, it was with some trepidation listeners approached. No need to worry though – what was good has been made even better. – New York Times

• Heaping praise. – Cleveland Plain Dealer 01/10/00

Redo of Covent Garden hits all the right notes  for an American critic. – San Francisco Examiner

As music education has been hacked from school curricula, arts groups have taken on the chore of teaching. But is it really a good substitute? – Orange County Register

Surprise – Western opera has found big success in China. The new middle classes love it and the President is a fan. – London Telegraph

“One could dismiss the term “sound art” as just a vaguely glorified name for weird music. And yet “sound art” has served as a useful historical euphemism, a safe harbor for works too outré for the ever-conservative classical music world.” Kyle Gann explains. – New York Times