Founded ten years ago in the wake of the San Jose Symphony’s demise, the orchestra “has gone from start-up to brand name in a down economy, digging into the South Bay arts scene … Outside San Francisco, Symphony Silicon Valley is now the Bay Area’s largest employer of classical musicians.”
Category: music
Steve Reich On Music History
“But for me, music history basically begins with Gregorian chant then goes to the end of 1750 with the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. Then it goes on without me paying much attention until Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok and so on. The entire classical and Romantic period is filled with geniuses that I don’t listen to and from whom I’ve learned absolutely nothing.”
Long Lost Beethoven Reconstructed And Performed
“Beethoven wrote the slow movement for his string quartet Opus 18 Number Two in 1799 before discarding it and composing another version a year later. The original has not survived, but has now been reconstructed by Prof Barry Cooper of Manchester University. He has reassembled the surviving sketches, filling in any gaps himself.”
A Plan To Dramatically Downsize Cincinnati’s Concert Hall
“The plans for the renovation of Music Hall show the main auditorium reduced by up to 1,500 seats, the orchestra seated on a stage that projects nearly 39 feet into space now occupied by seats, and the main lobby as one long expanse without glass doors dividing it.”
Kennedy Center To Have New Organ, Two More Years Of Eschenbach
“Christoph Eschenbach, the internationally renowned conductor and music director of the Kennedy Center [and its National Symphony Orchestra], will extend his contract for two years, through the 2014-15 season. And the concert hall will, at long last, be getting a new organ.”
Lost Beethoven Quartet Fragment To Get Modern Premiere
“A ‘lost’ Beethoven movement is to be performed for the first time in more than 200 years, after being pieced together from early drafts. Beethoven wrote the slow movement for his string quartet Opus 18 Number Two in 1799 before discarding it and composing another version a year later.”
Slatkin In Talks To Extend At Detroit Symphony
“On the cusp of his fourth season as music director of the Detroit Symphony, Leonard Slatkin told the Free Press on Sunday that he has begun preliminary talks with DSO management to extend his contract beyond its current expiration at the end of the 2012-13 season.”
From Così To Onegin In 4½ Hours
“Opera audiences are used to seeing performances awash in spectacle. But they rarely get to glimpse the magic that occurs between shows — namely, ‘the changeover,’ when one production is taken down and another takes its place. ‘It’s like working a huge jigsaw puzzle,’ says Rupert Hemmings, director of production at Los Angeles Opera. ‘It may seem haphazard, but everything’s done in order’.”
Getting To Know The Met’s New Heir Apparent
In a recent rehearsal, new Metropolitan Opera Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi “politely prefaced corrections with ‘I suggest’ and ‘May I ask a favor, please?’ But he made sure to get the changes that he wanted, even if they required several repetitions. After 90 minutes of efficient but painstaking rehearsal, he let the musicians go – an hour early.”
Banned In Beijing: New Opera About China’s First President
“An opera [by composer Huang Ruo] about Sun Yat-sen, China’s first president and Nationalist leader, has been canceled shortly before its scheduled opening at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing because of official objections to the music.”