Category: music

John Adams: “For all its professional, emotional and physical crises, Mahler’s life was exemplary for an artist who, no matter how loud the outside world might pound on the walls of his concentration, vigilantly maintained an unobstructed direct line to his creative self, keeping it uncorrupted and unblocked to the end.”

The Brooklyn Philharmonic all but disappeared for a couple of years. And that, says new artistic director Alan Pierson, is fantastic. “The institution had time to really wipe the slate clean and reconsider everything, and then come out again with something new, without the burden of attachment to something old.”

“The damp, dingy tunnels below Waterloo station in London are hardly your typical concert hall. But last weekend, as part of the Mindful exhibition, artist Oliver Beer brought a choir down to create ethereal music by turning the space into a giant musical instrument. To make the space resound, the singers needed to tap into the natural resonant frequencies of the building.”

The Colorado Symphony’s on the rocks financially and could collapse soon. But why? “Questions abound, and the symphony has done little to respond to them. Instead, it has issued only puzzling news releases to subscribers and media alike with non sequiturs, such as, ‘the reason that these facts are concurrently factual.'”

“The orchestra’s instruments, including a Steinway piano, and computer and electronic equipment would be donated to the Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse and Onondaga County. The SSO’s sheet music, considered to be the most valuable asset, will be given to the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University. Onondaga Historical Association will receive the orchestra’s archives, albums and paintings.”

“Alexander Pereira says revivals will be the exception at the famed festival under his leadership. He also says he plans to stage a Salzburg premiere each year of an opera not previously performed at the festival.”

“In the past, performance anxiety was rarely discussed; if anything, it was seen as a Darwinian way of separating those fit for a solo career from those doomed to teach. Today, performance psychologists advertise their services as coaches, not shrinks, providing musicians the same concrete tools and drills offered athletes and CEOs.”

If you’re under 25, you’ve never felt a true Massive Music Moment. Not Lady Gaga. Not Adele. Not even Kanye. As the critic Chuck Klosterman has written, “There’s fewer specific cultural touchstones that every member of a generation shares.”

“A meeting with the inspector broke up on Wednesday, just hours before a scheduled recital by the pianist Victoria Korchinskaya-Kogan, and that he was forced to immediately close.”

“The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s musicians and management today signed a five-year contract, the longest in anyone’s memory, a pact that puts the BPO on a sure footing to meet challenges ahead.”