Category: music

Last week the West Australian Opera revealed that it had removed the Bizet opera from its repertory because a sponsorship deal with a state-funded health organization forbids staging performances which “glamourise” smoking. After several days of worldwide scorn, Western Australia’s deputy premier has stepped in to snuff out the controversy.

“The Tiny House Tour was born. Organizers hoped for 100 attendees that first year. They got more than 350. The tour helped pay for the orchestra’s trip to Spain.”

“What I always find is a mix of pluses and minuses. Like pretty much everything in life, performances represent a bell curve: the few thrilling ones we’ll never forget, the few real stinkers, and the vast majority that are varying mixes of the good and the less successful.”

“I asked my friend and colleague Andrew Tham to join me in attempting to create a new kind of concert review: one that embraced, rather than attempted to deny, our subjectivity; one that could be a bit rough around the edges.”

“A growing body of evidence suggests that music could trump many of the much more expensive ‘fixes’ that we have thrown at the education system.”

“Combine these major studies into teenage music consumption habits and you’ll find few trends to bet on, and few trends that individual research companies have even followed up on. YouTube is the #1 music source for teens, then it’s omitted. MP3s are dying, then they’re not.”

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood: “It’s all about trying to play classical music in slightly different venues with a slightly less uptight atmosphere than is usually found in concerts. People are standing, it’s dark, there’s a bar and we set up on the stage and play whatever music we are particularly enjoying at the moment, so we decided the set-list just before we play.”

“Violins fell into four families, each represented by an archetype designed by an actual human family—Maggini, Amati, Stainer, and, of course, Stradivari, whose violins were slightly more bass-like in shape. What’s more, other violins became more like these four over time, and especially more like Strads.”

“I look around at my friends who are painters, my friends who are filmmakers, my friends who are writers, even, and they have larger audiences. But not the composers.”

The past month has been a messy one at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France: the artistic director was forced out; incoming music director Mikko Franck threatened to cancel his appearances this season; the musicians called a strike and cancelled a concert last Friday and were about to do it again this Friday – all of this over a plan to merge the management of the OPRF with that of the radio network’s other orchestra, the Orchestre National de France. (The widely-shared fear is that there would eventually be a full merger of the bands, with accompanying job losses.) For now, at least, the powers-that-be have calmed everyone down. (in French)