Category: music

“Stravinsky composed his Pogrebal’naya Pesnya (Funeral Song) in memory of his teacher, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, shortly after Rimsky’s death in June 1908. The 12-minute work was performed only once, … but was always thought to have been destroyed in the 1917 revolutions or the civil war that followed.”

There are a bunch of nice aspects of the program. Depending on “where you are,” the balance of sound changes, like it would in real life, so you hear more viola if you’re near the violas, more flute if you’re by the woodwinds, etc. The L.A. Phil also added abstract visualizations of the music to give viewers something else to look at while they listen. For me these elements were distracting, but I can see how they might add engagement for someone who is new to watching “live” classical music.

“I stood on the moon with Microsoft’s HoloLens. I perched in the forest as Reese Witherspoon wandered by in the movie Wild. And I nearly wept during Lost, director Saschka Unseld’s animated short about a severed robot hand lost in the woods. But no programming has moved me as much as four minutes of classical music put together by the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra’s crack digital initiatives team.”

“So it’s no surprise that his scheme to save the music industry, which Dotcom laid out in detail in a call with Universal Music Group executives days before Megaupload got shut down by authorities in early 2012, wasn’t exactly about playing by the books either. The real surprise is that his take-no-prisoners scheme apparently was well-received by execs of the world’s biggest music label.”

“The day of the fat singer standing in the middle of the stage is long gone,” says Dublin-born Máire Flavin, who is based in the UK. “You have to look hot, you need to be fit, you are racing around the stage, you are expected to do anything: jump, climb, be upside down . . .”

“What I think is great about ANDY and cabaret is exploring the appropriation of existing products—soup cans, but also popular music, and then marrying that with the virtuosity of opera and these parallel worlds is kinetically interesting.”

“Currently vice president of marketing, brand, and customer experience at the New York Philharmonic, he will take up his post with the venerable chorus and period-instrument orchestra next month , and will work in partnership with artistic director Harry Christophers.

Stéphane Lissner’s first season at the helm of the Opéra is not beginning auspiciously: Opening night of Madama Butterfly on Saturday was called off, as was Monday night’s performance of Rameau’s Platée. (in French; Google Translate version in English here)

“‘Holy cow – @British_Airways is about to kick the whole @BostonSymphony off their flight home!!’ That was the tweet sent out on Sunday by Toby Oft, principal trombonist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.”

“Several leading brands have top-of-the-line instruments that represent decades of work at developing prototypes, whether animating an existing line, such as the Yamaha CFX or the Shigeru Kawai, or creating a new one, such as Fazioli.”