Classical music has an image problem that feels like an existential threat. The pernicious idea of “elitism” — a word that was only coined in the 1980s — spread like Japanese knotweed through the pages of the press as the century neared its close. - The Critic
“I better warn you. I do talk a lot,” she said last Saturday night in Los Angeles. “I have 10 songs and the rest is chat.” In fact, Adele performed 16 songs that night, but she was true to her word. - The Wall Street Journal
In some ways he seems the archetypal modern man, prone to anxieties and constantly on the move, pushed around by world-historical forces. - The Telegraph (UK)
"A Finn who turned 28 in January, Mäkelä has had an astonishing rise in the music world. … Mäkelä will become CSO music director designate immediately and start a five-year tenure in 2027-28" — at the same time he begins as chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. - AP
"The financial crisis (is) so dire that the leadership is willing to take this huge public black eye (Salonen's departure) rather than let it go on a minute longer. … The perception that the (orchestra) is an organization in decline is likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy." - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
"Puccini’s universalism was sincerely felt, even if it’s unfashionable today, and it deserves to be appreciated rather than cynically apologized for — as some opera companies seem to do while continuing to reap the ticket-selling benefits of his popularity." - The New York Times
One in six live music venues closed in the past year, according to figures from the Music Venue Trust. But amid the gloom, there are venues opening, too – albeit with a broader remit than focusing solely on club nights or gigs. - The Guardian
For the past 20 years, he has been releasing album after album of songs with the object of producing a result to match nearly anything anybody could think to search for. These include hundreds of songs name-checking celebrities from the very famous to the much less so. - The New York Times
The catch is that he left it, and a lot more, with a friend, and never returned. So “the fate of hugely valuable collection of stage costumes, notebooks and never-before heard music is about to be decided." - BBC
"No matter how you feel about Cowboy Carter, this is a historic moment. Not only is Beyoncé using her enormous platform to deliver an artistic statement and raise the profile of other Black country artists, the highly-hyped album could help reframe the way audiences feel” about country. - Washington Post
As amanuenses, copyists, assistants, rehearsal pianists, and performers, Vally Lasker, Jane Joseph and Nora Day did the countless necessary parts of the work of composition which Holst, who suffered from neuritis in his hands, was physically unable to do. - The New York Times
In short: There can be no history of operatic modernity that is not also a memorial, no production of new opera that does not account for generic death, no opera written that does not, in its own way, undertake the work of mourning. - Van
Carl St.Clair is currently the longest-serving music director of a major American orchestra, and under his baton the ensemble has flourished: It’s now the largest U.S. orchestra founded in the last 50 years. - CultureOC
But not too much — just "a moderate level of syncopation to the point where our brain can still extract the periodic beat from the melodies. (These researchers) contend that the brain is essentially trying to anticipate upcoming beats amid a melody’s syncopation. The result is the impulse to dance." - Scientific American
The venue has an annual grant of £344,206 from Arts Council England (ACE) but John Gilhooly, Wigmore Hall’s artistic and executive director, says that it is “already 97% self-funded”. - The Guardian
