Category: music

“For devoted fans of the proms, which have often offered important new works as well as standard repertory in starry performances, the station’s series is likely to be frustrating. … It is broadcasting only eight full concerts.”

“The piece is a travelogue geographically and historically, moving fluidly from the early explorers to the striking farm workers of the Depression, tying mythic past to political reality in the same manner as the original American Guides.”

“The reissue market, more than the market for new music, tests what it means to be a fan and consumer of music when music itself has declining value — look hard enough, and almost any album one might want exists online, either legally and cheap, or illegally and free.”

Stephen Godfroy was convinced that High Street chains such as HMV were putting off customers because they had “commoditised” music – and that the solution was to bring back “the joy of browsing”.

“New research suggests 18 to 24-year-olds are buying more vinyl records than any other age group under fifty.”

Marin Alsop will take the podium for the Last Night of the Proms on Sept. 7, with guest stars Joyce DiDonato and Nigel Kennedy. The Proms’ Wagner bicentenary programming include a a concert Ring cycle conducted by Daniel Barenboim as well as concert performances of Tristan and Isolde, Tannhäuser and Parsifal.

Inspired by the calming effect an Eno installation had on his utterly wired mother-in-law, orthopedic surgeon Robin Turner approached the ambient music pioneer to help create a special room at the new Montefiore Hospital on England’s south coast.

“We have this strange situation where the period ensembles have taken over the really early music, say up to Mozart. And on the other side you have new music ensembles who play only that. The standard orchestras find that their repertoire is always shrinking. In the future the orchestra will have to think in a different way – it can’t forever be this rigid formation of 100 players fixed in one role.”

Caroline Shaw: “Just last week, someone was like, ‘I didn’t know you write music’.” The 30-year-old composer (yes) talks about how she created her prize-winning score, Partita for Eight Voices.

“In a year that saw strong support for artistic director Lyndon Terracini’s programming, earnings from ticket sales shot up $19.4m from the previous year” to a total of $54.9m.