Category: music

Norman Lebrecht: “Isaac Stern told me that when he was growing up in 1920s San Francisco ‘a musician in the orchestra was a person‘ – even if he earned a pittance. He had social status. As that status declined it had to be replaced with other compensations or orchestral life would have ceased to exist. So wages rose.”

“In 1967, classical music still occupied a central position in our high culture. Now it doesn’t. Most Americans don’t care about classical music and don’t go to orchestral concerts. I think they should, but it doesn’t matter what I think. They’ll do what they want to do—and one thing they don’t want to do is go out of their way to hike the salary of a violinist in Philadelphia who already makes over $2,400 a week, especially when the median weekly household income in the U.S. is $1,073 (which is roughly what the average London orchestra player earns per week).” [click on “The Money Pit” after clicking this link]

“An experienced conductor with over 120 recordings to his name, [Martyn] Brabbins will join ENO in a troubled time for the company. Attempts to recoup the company’s losses have led to clashes between management and musical staff. [In March,] Brabbins’s predecessor Mark Wigglesworth resigned the post after disagreements with the executive panel over the future of the company.”

“Beyoncé and Radiohead may have surprised the world with unexpected records, but Berry likely just left a few jaws on the floor. Because on Tuesday, he announced Chuck, his first record since 1979’s Rock It.”

“[Benjamin] Grosvenor, 24, won the first Ronnie and Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize – which, in addition to the prize money, comes with opportunities to perform with the orchestra. He will play with the Philharmonic in April 2018, the orchestra said.”

“Most of those disagreements have to do with the future: how much money the musicians, who have been on strike since Sept. 30, will make; how their retirements will be funded; and what the organization’s five-year financial forecast should look like. But … the two sides also differ over basic matters that have already taken place, such as whether the musicians were notified about the latest concert cancellations before management announced them to the public, and whether the musicians permitted management to give them a presentation about the organization’s finances.”

“When we use screenplay-writing software we become used to moving scenes around physically, as if stacking neat plastic boxes. Similarly our music – once represented only as cryptic black scratches on white paper – is now circles and squares and starbursts. Whether this has any long-term effect on our cognition will be for the scientists to study; I wonder if our ability to conceive the invisible will change, or even shrink.”

“We can go pretty low,down to the lowest note on a piano, so, quite a bit lower than a double bass and actually lower than the tuba and the contrabassoon.” The instrument was invented in 1849 by luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in France.

“Less than six hours before the curtain was to rise for the final performance of Pittsburgh Opera’s production of La traviata, the lead singer, Danielle Pastin, was sick, and it was unclear whether she would be able to perform. Was [Claudia] Rosenthal – the understudy who had been playing the small role of Annina – prepared to play Violetta instead? … Oh, and by the way, she would still have to sing Annina’s part, too.”