Category: music

“Various kinds of neighborhood outreach programs are springing up at orchestras all over the country, while educational initiatives have tripled.”

“With all transport requisitioned and no petrol anyway, they simply walked all day across the battlefield, shells falling all around them, to the hilltop town of Montepulciano, hiding amid the crops and ditches to avoid menacing aircraft and columns of German troops.”

“Rather than dividing the audience from new music by ramming the avant-garde down people’s throats, it created something brand-new and made it wildly popular throughout European society.”

“In the past, when Mr. Levine was working at full capacity, he redefined the role of music director in a public way that sent clear signals to operagoers and patrons,” writes Anthony Tommasini. “But these days the Met does not convey the artistic focus and mission it did before Mr. Levine’s health problems began.”

“One of the things I had to actually learn was how to be a journalist. ‘Music critic’ isn’t satisfactory to me. I’ve learned to do reporting, to do research. It’s not about saying, ‘This music makes me feel this way!’ The context and the story behind it are often just as rewarding, and are crucial to understanding the actual music.”

“The cheers at the venue put an exclamation point on the remarkable turnaround the DSO has made since the end of its debilitating six-month strike in 2010-11. The strike left the institution deeply scarred and teetering on the brink of financial collapse. Two years later, the DSO has taken key steps to rebuild its business model, launched innovative programs designed to nurture new audiences at home and abroad and filled its depleted ranks with a steadily growing crop of A-list musicians.”

“We need a five-year plan — one that will assign responsibilities on all sides to find a more stable platform for the continuation of our world-class orchestra. Management says there is a $5 million problem. For the next five years, do the following (all with new money).”

Fees for rehearsals have increased by 61 per cent between 2010-12, and performance fees will increase by 43 per cent between 2012-14. “Obviously this is not working for us.”

“The Rheinoper, based in Dusseldorf, said some of the audience had to seek medical help following early performances of Tannhauser. But the producer “refused” to tone down the staging, set in a concentration camp during the Holocaust.”

“Burkhard C Kosminski’s production of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser that generated a furore of criticism for its use of Nazi imagery has been officially cancelled. … Some patrons have apparently sought medical treatment for ‘psychological and physical stress’.”