Category: music

“The instrument sports a number of unusual features, like a banked fingerboard that fights strain by reducing supination in a player’s left arm. But what truly draws the eye—and drops the jaw—is the viola’s off-kilter layout: It has been stretched on the diagonal to some 20 inches to maximize the vibrating surface area. Because it has also been shortened from top to bottom, it feels like a ¾-size viola to the player’s left hand.”

Zachary Woolfe: “As it prepares to celebrate its centennial in 2019, the Philharmonic puts more energy into new work than any other orchestra. It presents a greater sense of the diversity of today’s music and its creators than any other orchestra. It ties its mission to education and social justice in its city more than any other orchestra. And, yes, more than any other orchestra, it combines a commitment to the future with a fresh eye on the past.”

According to a statement on the company’s website, Aleksandar Marković “is currently on extended leave and it has been mutually agreed that he will not return to the Company for the remainder of the season.” He was to conduct a production of Turandot that opens in ten days.

The 28-year-old Florida native was the youngest winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal Competition. Among her predecessors as Tucker Award winners are Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani, Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Fabiano, and Jamie Barton. (includes video)

“[It was] a challenge akin to a top pitching prospect’s deciding to become an outfielder. … She struggled through lean years without much work as she reinvented herself, taking on credit card debt for the first time as she and her husband raised a family in suburban New Jersey.”

“The green idyll of the village of Snape and its environs is under threat, menaced by the prospect of a giant car park to serve the increasing number of visitors to the area. As battle lines are drawn, a coalition of local people and music lovers has formed to see off the threat and tempers are becoming frayed.”

And that’s partly because of money: “The runaway success of the Elbphilharmonie — every event this season is sold out, largely because of fascination with the architecture — gives Mr. Lieben-Seutter a rare degree of freedom. ‘The public is generally skeptical when it comes to contemporary music,’ he said. ‘But from a building like this people expect new experiences. Whenever we have played contemporary music we have had a very positive, focused public.'”

Fanny Mendelssohn died at the age of 41, having written 500 pieces. That’s … a lot. And more keep being discovered: “In only March of this year, it was discovered that her Easter Sonata, once credited to her brother, was actually hers, and it was played live under her name for the very first time this year.”