Category: music

“We can all agree that music is dishonoured if we let it dribble away in the background, as an accompaniment to chatting over a skinny frappucino or answering emails. But does it follow that to honour music as it deserves, we have to listen closely to it?”

“As the demand for new opera seems to be growing, and the workshopping process is becoming more accepted, it’s notable that many commissioning programs seem to be reinventing the wheel.”

Near the end of the first work in an all-Beethoven recital in metro Miami, the 75-year-old Canadian began playing the same phrase over and over. Kuerti stopped and started repeatedly during the second piece, appearing progressively more disoriented, until an audience member coaxed him from the stage and an ambulance was called.

“No official announcement has been made yet but the La Scala board has decided. … The appointment should take effect from January 2017. That ‘should’ is necessary because Chailly may take up the post before then if Daniel Barenboim steps down before his contract expires at the end of 2016.”

A certain amount of “poor opera” may even be a healthy corrective to purify and revive the form.

“The resurgence of vinyl is the closest music consumption has come to the slow food movement.”

“They’re no longer retromania and are becoming the format of choice for more and more music fans. Vinyl sales are growing fast.”

“I’m guessing that the entire budget for the MSO wouldn’t cover construction of three luxury boxes. Inclusion of the arts would broaden the base of support beyond those who feel the need for a handful of very tall millionaires and the wealthy people who hold their contracts to receive tax subsidies. The arts just might make an uphill PR campaign more politically viable.”

“The 150-year-old German polymer giant Bayer MaterialScience has fashioned the ‘futuristic cello’ from utterly transparent, lightweight cast resin … making what is normally a rather cumbersome instrument easier to play and carry … [and] creating a cello body that acts as a blank canvas for a range of optical effects using integrated technology.”

“The blaring horns popularized by South African soccer featured in the premiere of Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer’s The Red Heifer about a murder blamed on Jews in northeastern Hungary.”