Category: music

“The emotions evoked by the deaths of used pianos are powerful, and they came flooding in response to a recent article in The New York Times about their frequent disposal and the reasons for it. But when it comes to keeping old pianos alive, owners find that their feelings collide with the reality of expensive repairs and inexpensive, easily available brand-new replacements. Still, a few options exist.”

“The soundtrack includes the Tallis Scholars’ version of Spem in Alium featured in the first book, along with 14 other classics namedropped in the series, including the ‘Flower Duet’ from Lakmé, Pachelbel’s Canon in D and the aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations.”

David Patrick Stearns: “Spem in alium certainly wouldn’t be appropriate. Even for those who can get past the possibly blasphemous sex-and-God nexus of the situation, the piece is only 12 minutes long. How can you get anything done in that short a time? Mahler symphonies are long and provide a good sound shield … but their anguish may be contagious. You don’t want anybody having an existential crisis until after orgasm.”

“Peter Nero will lead the Philly Pops next season in Verizon Hall and then, at the end of 2012-13, pass the baton to a successor after 3½ decades of Gershwin, film music, Broadway, and a smattering of core classics. He also, at that point, turns over his rights to the name of the ensemble” – unless the orchestra misses any of Nero’s severance payments.

“At a challenging time for orchestras and when the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra was between music directors, the orchestra increased both its subscription sales and attendance last season. … Average attendance for classical concerts at Music Hall was 1,891, an increase of nearly 8 percent. That uptick follows a banner year the previous season – Paavo Järvi’s last as music director.”

The London Olympics organizing committee worked with Universa Music “to divide 2,000 plus songs into five distinct playlists that are themed to provide the most appropriate soundtrack to each sport.” But has that music been too loud? They don’t think so.

“Inspired by the folk historian Cecil Sharp, who toured the British countryside by bicycle in the early 1900s, and Alan Lomax, who recorded country, blues and folk musicians in America during the 1930s and 1940s, [Ashu Sharma and Ankur Malhotra] dream is to create an archive of recordings not just from Rajasthan and Gujarat, but from across the country.”

For Pablo Heras-Casado, principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, “early music represents the core of the repertory, with contemporary music a close second. Trained as a conductor of Renaissance choral music and soon steeped in the cerebral avant-garde, Mr. Heras-Casado, who is 34 and Spanish, arrived at Beethoven and Brahms only in recent years.”

“After the initial burst of excitement when he first arrived last fall, there was no guarantee that the 38-year-old conductor had what’s needed to keep the momentum going. There definitely were some problems and less-compelling performances. But Morlot has racked up a genuinely impressive list of achievements over the course of his first season.”

“In the 100 years or so since recorded music has been widely available, our lives have become suffused by it: we are born and die to music, we eat and shop and travel and make love to music, we work and play to music. Some of our most powerful memories are either of music, or are accompanied by music – and sometimes, even as listeners, we seem almost to become the music that we hear.”