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JUST
DIFFERENT: New technologies are changing the music business. Musicians
can play along, or they can fight it. But just because the economics are
changing doesn't mean it's a catastrophe. "Rather than insist that the
way the music world does business today is the only way imaginable, it
behooves artists to take a longer and more imaginative view. It's not as if
the status quo has served them so well." Salon 03/30/00
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DON'T LIKE IT?
BLAME THE AUDIENCE: A composer/scientist has undertaken a series of
performance in Zurich with his computer-generated music. The computer
"reads" the audience - fidgets, coughs, shifting in the chairs -
and translates the variables into music. New Scientist 3/28/00
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A
RESPONSIBLE ACTION?: Despite the fact that much rap music contains
lyrics that are violent, degrading to women, Jews, whites and blacks, record
labels have stood silently by while they have raked in millions of dollars
from top-selling rap artists. Now Universal Music Group has told its
"rap recording group the Murderers that it wouldn't release their new
album until they removed anti-police and anti-gay slurs from their
lyrics." If they're being so responsible, some rappers have pointed
out, why don't they object to the "N-word"? Los Angeles Times 03/27/00
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STUCK ON STOCKEN:
Tonalist composer Frederick Stocken talks about life in the looking-back
lane. The young British composer values tonality and tunality, but finds it
difficult to escape his anarchist image. The Idler 03/27/00
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SINGER X IN Y
RECITAL: After Metropolitan Opera soprano Deborah Voigt cancelled her
performance with the Y Music Society (which presents only one singer each
season on its Carnegie Music Hall recital series) untested soprano Isabel
Bayrakdarian filled in to take her place. The 25-year-old Canadian "is
much in the news, in fact, as she will make her New York operatic debut this
week in a concert version of Herold's rarely-heard 'Zampa.'" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 03/27/00
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THE
REHEARSAL PROBLEM: Classical musicians are under pressure to produce
better music with less rehearsal time. "Conductors could argue that
they go into rehearsals with lower expectations because of the time
pressures. What we are talking about is not shoddy workmanship; it is a
culture in which routine music-making has become a fixture in the artistic
climate and orchestral economy." Sunday Telegraph 03/26/00
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THE
POPE'S MUSICAL WORLD TOUR: The Pope has hired London's Philharmonia
Orchestra to play a world tour of concerts promoting peace. BBC 03/26/00
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BOMB
SCARE: Seji Ozawa's performance with the Vienna Philharmonic in Paris
Friday night was delayed because of a bomb threat delivered in protest against
current Austrian politics. Boston Globe
03/24/00
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TAKING
IT IN STRIDE: The little-known symphonic compositions of jazz pianist
James P. Johnson (who perfected "stride" piano, "so-called
for its distinctive, striding, left-hand patterns, and imitated by thousands
of keyboard players") have been unearthed by American conductor Marin
Alsop. She has secured the first modern performances of much of it with her
own Concordia Orchestra.
The Herald (Glasgow) 03/24/00
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MUZAC:
THE UNAVOIDABLE PLAGUE: A British member of parliament has instigated a
bill to ban muzac from public places. "'Piped music, muzak, or canned
music is increasingly despised. All music is devalued if it is treated as
acoustic wallpaper.'" The Chicago Tribune (Reuters) 03/23/00
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MASUR
TO FRANCE: After much speculation, outgoing New York Philharmonic
conductor Kurt Masur has been named music director of the Orchestre National
de France. San Francisco Chronicle
03/23/00
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BRAND "X":
The Zefiro Ensemble is part of a growing trend among "authentic"
performers of Baroque music: unlike the traditional chamber orchestra model
of a "group of musicians that rehearses in a particular city on a
regular basis and sets out from there to give concerts," Zefiro's
players reside in countries throughout Europe and consider themselves
"as operating under a brand name." Sounds awfully 21st century for
a group whose mission is to recreate the sounds of the 17th-century masters.
Ha'aretz (Israel)
03/23/00
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PRETERNATURALLY YOUNG: Philadelphia-based
recording engineer Ward Marston has made it his life's work to recreate the
magic of opera's "golden age" of vocals. Enthralled by
turn-of-the-century singers like Adelina Patti and Enrico Caruso, "the
first generation of performers to be able to record their voice, or their
art, for history," Marston has transferred more than 400 historic
recordings, including 23 on his own label, from their original wax cylinders
and 78s to CD. The Age (Melbourne)
03/23/00
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PLAYING FOR PEACE:
For the first time in ten years, an orchestra from border-conscious North
Korea will perform in Seoul next month. "We hope that the concert will
help promote peace between the two Koreas," said the head of the
entertainment company promoting the cross cultural duet. The Times of India 3/22/00
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MUSICIANS are
finally beginning to collect some royalties for their music being streamed
on the internet. Wired
03/21/00
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"A"
IS FOR ALLAH: Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, has
returned to the studio to record his first children's album, a spoken-word
recording using the Arabic alphabet to "spell out the fundamentals of
his Islamic faith." BBC 3/22/00
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STILL
SOARING: Legendary French composer/conductor Pierre Boulez, still vital
and idealistic at 75, is throwing his musical and fundraising weight behind
the London Symphony Orchestra's ongoing residency in New York. "The
American connection is an important and logical one, since the LSO was the
first British orchestra to tour the United States--that 1912 visit nearly
didn't happen, as the band had originally been booked to sail on the
Titanic--and has maintained a link through close collaboration with
Bernstein, Copland, Previn and, more recently, Michael Tilson Thomas." London Times 0 3/21/00
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PAIN
RELIEVER: Musicians of Canada's National Arts Center Orchestra
have suffered an unprecedented number of injuries this season. So the
orchestra will cut down on the performances it gives next year, in hope of
reducing repetitive stress ailments. CBC 03/19/00
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SPIRIT OF INQUIRY: March is when many orchestras announce their lineup for the
following season. Traditionally, music directors of major American
orchestras concentrated on the three B's, conducted a lot of M and dabbled
in a couple of H's. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Handel and Haydn
were the core of the orchestral literature. "But in an average Tilson
Thomas season, one of the B's may be Bernstein or Berlioz rather than
Brahms, the M is more likely to be Mahler than Mozart; the H will probably
be Lou Harrison, rather than Haydn or Handel." San Francisco Examiner 03/20/00
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HOW
CAN YOU BE "WORLD CLASS?" When the Province of Ontario
withdrew funding support to build a new opera house, it thwarted Canadian
Opera Company plans that have been brewing for decades. CBC 03/19/00
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NOT QUITE YET:
Every American composer seems to be writing opera these days. But despite
some high-profile conservative efforts ("Gatsby," "A View
from The Bridge") American opera hasn't yet come into its own. Don't
despair though - "Prior to World War II, it was widely felt that
British work was dead beyond hope of revival; the last opera by an
English-born composer to enter the standard repertoire had been Purcell's Dido
and Aeneas, composed in 1689." Then in 1945, Benjamin Britten wrote
"Peter Grimes" and a new era in British opera commenced. Commentary 03/00
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SO WHO NEEDS ANOTHER PLANET? Gustav Holst
had four years to add a Pluto movement to his suite "The Planets"
before he died. He didn't do it, of course, and the suite has never suffered
in popularity for it. Now the Halle Orchestra will premiere a
"Pluto" movement, newly composed by Collin Matthews, and some are
asking if it's just a publicity stunt. In fact, a bit of a mini-trend is
brewing in finishing dead composers' works. The Scotsman 03/17/00
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SILENT VOICES: The "most famous
record store in the world" is closing. HMV's Oxford Street store, for
almost 80 years at the center of the retail recording business, is calling
it quits - and with it a lot of history fades away. London Times 03/17/00
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THE
TYRANNY OF THE AVANT GARDE: Composer Frederick Stocken is no fan of
Pierre Boulez. Stocken acknowledges that Boulez was a revolutionary in his
younger days, fighting to throw off the repression of tonality. But as the
20th Century progressed, "it was the old story of the revolutionaries
becoming as repressive as the masters they had sought to overthrow. In the
musical world, the Young Turks became a powerful,
"anti-establishment" establishment in which all that was
subversive was acceptable and anything deemed traditional was banned. Far
from fulfilling its emancipatory promise, atonality became just another
dogma, an "official" art. If the parallels between communism and
modernism have any truth, how is it that the Marx-influenced aesthetic of
Boulez did not collapse with the downfall of communism?" New Statesman 03/17/00
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A
RELATIONSHIP WITH STUFF: "My music collection, in principle,
remains on my shelves, but increasingly it lives in my computer." Part
of the pleasure of collecting something is establishing a physical
relationship with objects. What happens when the object of a collecting
mania disappears into the ether? Feed 03/14/00
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THE STREETS ARE ALIVE… Is that Julie Andrews you hear singing in the
streets of Leicester? Yes! Along with scores of Londoners singing along to
the 1965 film as it’s being displayed on a huge outdoor screen with
accompanying karaoke-style lyrics. Also available at the event are
sing-along kits, which include “a foam nun (to wave during the opening nun
sequence), a fake edelweiss flower (for Christopher Plummer's solo number)
and Ricola mints for the ensuing sore throat.” Singapore
Straits Times (USA Today) 03/16/00
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HOME
NO HOME: The Ontario government has withdrawn from a deal with the
Canadian Opera Company to sell a prime site for construction of a new opera
house. CBC 03/15/00
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BATTLE
OF THE PYGMIES:
In the wake of protests over what music gets to be listed on Britain's
classical music sales charts, some are wondering: so what is classical music
anyway? Who cares? The
Guardian 03/14/00
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SONG
OF FREEDOM: In
the 1970's a group of musicians in Chile set the revolution to music by
forming the New Song movement - a mix of folk music, contemporary protest
song, popular poetry and added Andean pan pipes, flutes and the charango,
a tiny mandolin-style guitar. The Pinochet regime quickly banned all
instruments associated with the movement, and one singer was murdered.
Pinochet's return to Chile has brought fear of oppression, causing musicians
to raise their instruments again in protest. The Scotsman 03/13/00
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SONIC SOUVENIR: Like that concert you
just heard? Want to take it home with you? Now London's South Bank Center
will make it happen. If you want a CD of that performance, South Bank will
deliver it to you within an hour of the end of the concert. Appreciating
music, after all, is about being able to hear repeat performances. London
Times 03/14/00
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SYMPHONIC
JUMBOTRON:
If it's okay for rock bands and sports teams, why not for symphony
orchestras? Beginning next month the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will
project itself on an enormous screen above its stage (no instant replays or
super-slo-mo for now, though). New Zealand Herald 03/14/00
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OF
INSTRUMENTALISTS AND MUSICIANS: Franz Welser-Most, director designate of
the venerable Cleveland Orchestra, on the difference between American and
European orchestras: "American orchestras come prepared, which European
orchestras mostly don't. You must be a really great instrumentalist to play
in an American orchestra. In Europe, there is a different angle: good
musicianship first, and then the technical side hopefully will be there as
well. This is one reason why a lot of marriages between American orchestras
and European music directors have been very happy and successful." Los
Angeles Times 03/14/00
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NEW MOZART OPERA: London's Hampstead and
Highgate Festival will present a recently rediscovered opera, "The
Philosopher's Stone" which Mozart was a collaborator on. The
production, scheduled for May, will be the first time the opera has been
heard in Europe since 1814. BBC Music Magazine 03/12/00
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PRINCESS
DI OPERA: An opera inspired by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales,
debuts in Germany. Called "A Lady Dies," it is a savage indictment
of the news media.
BBC 03/12/00
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THE
VIENNA PROBLEM: Artists have been announcing protests and boycotting
commitments in Austria to protest the Freedom Party's ascent to power. But
the Vienna Philharmonic has been silent on the matter. One critic asks the
orchestra why. And by the way, he wants to know - what about only having one
woman in the orchestra? The Guardian 03/10/00
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THE
KEYS TO MY SUCCESS: No one knows for sure the exact year the piano was
born, but the Smithsonian has settled more or less on 1700. The Smithsonian
has put together a suitably impressive birthday celebration for the most
popular instrument in Western music. Washington Post 03/10/00
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CAN
PASSION BE TAUGHT? Conductor Seiji Ozawa thinks so. He's set up a school
in Japan and hopes to teach students to express their passions by exploring
and performing Mozart's operas. "He hopes the undercurrents intended by
the 18th century composer--be they romantic, melancholic or tragic--will
stir the students enough to overcome their cultural reserve and play with
more zeal."
Los Angeles Times 03/09/00
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LIKE
MY WORK, LIKE ME? Do you really have to like the artist behind a work of
art? Approve of what he thought or how he lived? Certainly not. "We
might have to face the fact that Shostakovich was a mediocre human being
possessed of staggering musical ability." New
York Times 03/09/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
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BATON
BUZZ: Myung Wha-Chung back in Paris as head of Radio Phil and Kurt Masur
said to be set to take over the Orchestre National de France. London
Telegraph 03/08/00
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CLEANING
HOUSE: Violinist Pinchas Zukerman has taken over directing Canada's
National Arts Center Orchestra: "I've been cleaning up the place, it's
filthy," he said. "It was basically the wrong people at the wrong
time, or the right people at the wrong time, or the wrong people at the
right time. It's just never been right." One thing you won't hear him
perform is music in period-instrument style: "I hate it. It's
disgusting," he said. "The first time I heard that shit, I
couldn't believe it. It's complete rubbish, and the people who play it. . .
. Maybe one or two or a half-dozen have wonderful musical minds. But I
certainly don't want to hear them perform." Toronto
Globe and Mail 03/08/00
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LLOYD
WEBBER to make Bollywood musical called "Bombay Dreams." BBC
03/08/00
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YOU
ARE WHAT YOU LISTEN TO? Today's theory is that you can tell a lot about
your future president by what music he listens to. George W is partial to
Van Morrison and the Everly Brothers, John McCain likes the Platters, Al
Gore goes for Bob Dylan, and Bill Bradley is rumored to have a thing for
Bruce Hornsby. And what should that tell you? Oh well, there goes another
theory. Washington
Post 03/07/00
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"SHOCK"
OF THE NEW: Only a few months into the 21st Century, all manner of
contemporary classical music for the new millennium is bursting out in
Ireland.
Irish Times 03/07/00
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WHAT
NEXT? Elliott Carter has written his first opera at the age of 90. Rate
this NGC: Not for General Consumption. Philadelphia Inquirer 03/07/00
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"What
Next" is a nonlinear, non-narrative grab bag of ideas couched
in a conceit of six characters reeling from some never-specified
catastrophe they have just survived together, like a Samuel Beckett play
backward: 'Recovering from Godot.' " New
York Times 03/07/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
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A VIEW TO
THE FUTURE: It won't be long before music lovers embrace
pay-as-you-go service, much like cellular telephones, making music
accessible everywhere. Artists on independent labels will get as much
attention as superstars signed with what are now the Big Four record
companies. MTV pioneer Thomas Dolby Robertson says we are entering a new era
in music that will have as much impact on this generation as The Beatles did
in the '60s, and will replace the sea change brought on by MTV. National
Post 03/06/00
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PLAY
THE HITS MA'AM: Opera audiences might be growing, but the number of
operas they want to see is getting smaller. "Of the literally hundreds
of operas in circulation, beginning in the 1500s and ranging up to the
present day, no more than 25 or so can today be called reliable box-office
hits." Hartford
Courant 03/06/00
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GUNNING
FOR THE TOP: The Dallas Symphony is 100 years old this year, and it's
got big dreams. "The board has a mandate to get Dallas within America's
top-tier orchestras. It's a long-term project. I think it will take 10
years. And another five before the world notices." Money helps. The
orchestra regularly sells out its concerts, and is raising $100 million for
its endowment. Is it possible to buy a tradition as something more than a
good, solid, middle-of-the-road American orchestra? New York Times 03/05/00 (one-time registration
required for entry)
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NURTURE
THIS: A prestigious series presenting promising performers in the
world's "dream" concert halls hits a few bumps. What should the
criteria for "promising" be? New York Times 03/05/00 (one-time registration
required for entry)
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ON
THE ROAD TO MARRAKESH: There's a revival of Western interest in
North African music. "Long before India and the hippy trail, Morocco
provided a springboard into the exotic, right on Europe's doorstep. As
Westerners from Cecil Beaton and Joe Orton to William Burroughs and the
Rolling Stones came here in search of easy drugs and risky sex, so Moroccan
sounds fed into Western pop." London
Telegraph 03/04/00
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THE
"ART" OF THE PIANO: Artur Rubinstein had one of the longest
careers as a pianist in the 20th Century and one of the greatest. Now a
94-CD 106-hour collection of his recordings is being released. The pianist's
recordings were said not to have given the full measure of his talent, but
they do map out an extraordinary career. Washington Post
03/05/00
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THE
ORCHESTRA THAT WOULDN'T DIE: It's been decades since the Shanghai
Symphony has been "the best orchestra in the East." But it
certainly gets the prize for most persistent. New York Times 03/05/00 (one-time registration
required for entry)
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POST-APARTHEID
RAP: No that isn't Snoop Doggy Dogg you hear thudding down the
streets of Johannesburg - it's Kwaito, South Africa's latest musical craze.
The lyrics, written in Zulu, Xhosa, and tsotsi taal (gangster slang) are
dedicated to describing life in the townships and the experiences of the
post-apartheid generation. The
Economist 03/04/00
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THE
POLITICS OF TRADITION: A jury has awarded a judgment against the London
Times for accusing composer Keith Burstein of disrupting concerts of atonal
music. Burstein is on a campaign to bring back traditional harmony to
classical music and has made no secret of his disdain for music without
tonality, especially that of Harrison Birtwistle.
The Guardian 03/02/00
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ANOTHER
ORCHESTRA CLOSES: On the heels of South Africa's National Symphony
Orchestra going out of business earlier this year, the National Chamber
Orchestra has announced its demise for lack of funding. Heavily subsidized
by South Africa's former white governments, the country's large cultural
institutions are having a tough time with reduced support from the new
governments. Daily
Mail and Telegraph (South Africa) 03/03/00
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A
POPULAR GHETTO? On the eve of a big World music festival in London, a
critic wonders if the music of Africa has come of age in the West or is it
still the lure of the exotic that attracts. London Times 03/03/00
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THE
UNIFIED ALIEN THEORY: No other way to explain it, really. After watching
last week's Grammy Awards, one critic has figured it out. Mariah Carey and
Celine Dionne? Nothing human about them. They're aliens! The Age
(Melbourne) 03/03/00
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MUSICAL
MID-RANGE:
In olden days composers wrote plenty of music for all levels of skill at the
piano. Not modern composers. So a new commissioning project aims at helping
to fill in the intermediate range.
New York Times 03/02/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
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IN-STORE
E-MUSIC: Traditional music stores have turned to e-tech tactics to try
to fend off extinction. Wired
02/29/00
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SECOND
CHANCES: Peter Oundjian was a solid member of the Tokyo String Quartet
until hand problems forced him out. Now he's reinvented himself as a
conductor. Ottawa
Citizen 03/01/00
