http://www.artsjournal.com/music.shtml Copyright 2010 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:13:20 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.33 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss "[A]fter years of specialized therapies and dietary changes, [Matt] Savage navigates a daily maze of classes, practice sessions, homework assignments, and dorm life at Berklee," and he fits in performances when he can. "[T]he Matt Savage story is rapidly evolving from youthful prodigy with a disability to seasoned performer with a bright future."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/at_berklee_prod.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/at_berklee_prod.shtml music Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:59:27 -0800 "When it comes to the music of Prokofiev, pianist and Yale University professor Boris Berman is the go-to guy. He's recorded the composer's complete piano works, written a book about his sonatas and founded the Prokofiev Society of America. Still, until recently, Berman had never seen or heard Music for Athletic Exercises."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/longlost_prokof.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/longlost_prokof.shtml music Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:47:45 -0800 "When Pittsburgh tries to lure a foreign company, it often turns to maestro Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to close the deal. ... For foreign executives, the orchestra adds a touch of sophistication to a city many still associate with smokestacks."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/maestro_is_pitt.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/maestro_is_pitt.shtml music Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:09:01 -0800 "The week-long Easter festival has been shaken to the core after an apparent suicide attempt by its technical chief and the disappearance of the director amid allegations of a massive fraud totalling over €2m (£1.7m)."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/scandal_embezzl.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/scandal_embezzl.shtml music Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:51:45 -0800 "This summer's season will run eight weeks instead of nine -- July 1 through Aug. 22 -- and that trim inevitably means a reduction in the overall number of concerts, master classes and other offerings."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/aspen_music_fes_2.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/aspen_music_fes_2.shtml music Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:06:04 -0800 "Most experienced listeners know that thinking in terms of definitive performances is as meaningless for new music as it is for any other kind."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/is_there_any_su_2.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/is_there_any_su_2.shtml music Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:59:11 -0800 "New York's Metropolitan Opera is bringing back Joseph Volpe, who left three years ago after 16 years as the company's general manager, to lead contract talks with some of its major unions."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/metropolitan_op_3.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/metropolitan_op_3.shtml music Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:03:51 -0800 "Unwilling to believe that music was altogether useless, Darwin concluded that it may have made man's ancestors more successful at mating. Yet if that were so, you might expect one gender to be musically more gifted than the other, and there is no evidence of that. So what is the point of music?"... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/whats_the_point_6.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/whats_the_point_6.shtml music Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:08:08 -0800 "You can see clearly how various generations experienced a bump in participation as they got older. The so-called Generation X, however, has yet to exhibit an upward spike as it moves into middle age. Every classical organization in America should print out this graph, pin it on the bulletin board, and ponder what is to be done." Alex Ross, a Gen X-er himself, holds out some hope.... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/the_graph_that.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/the_graph_that.shtml music Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:59:10 -0800 "In a story of opera house intrigue with nationalist overtones, the Italian general music director of the Saxon State Opera and its celebrated orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, has abruptly resigned, leaving the house without a conductor for this month's Wagner Ring cycle."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/fabio_luisi_qui.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/fabio_luisi_qui.shtml music Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:42:07 -0800 "[I]deally how musicians are clothed should have no bearing on the sound they make. But the brute fact is that understated elegance inspires confidence in the performer, while ugly, ill-fitting and garish outfits (still the norm in our concert halls) make one sub-consciously doubt the wearer's competence."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/cue_the_costume.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/cue_the_costume.shtml music Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:21:37 -0800 "[W]hile albums and singles remain the mainstay of the music industry, technologists, innovators and composers are coming up with new tools to help modern listeners engage with the songs they love." Among them are programs that let people "mix their favourite tracks in virtually any way they like," then "share their creations."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/digital_tools_m.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/digital_tools_m.shtml music Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:53:27 -0800 "[T]he 'butts in seats' mantra that has long been intoned by many marketing directors skirts the issue of what kind of audience you're getting. Yet the audience's tastes ... are key to the future of the field."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/how_to_entice_a.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/how_to_entice_a.shtml music Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:12:12 -0800 "Lomax's microphones," being of 1930s vintage, "tended to emphasize the higher notes," but "some of the music is amazing. Lomax's Holy Grail was the search for musical traditions as close to Mother Africa as he could find."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/what_alan_lomax.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/what_alan_lomax.shtml music Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:27:19 -0800 "Alsop's staff initially thought she was a little crazy. Major international orchestras work hard to be the best at what they do and be admired by their audiences, not mingle with them. Would amateurs be good enough to play with professionals? Would anybody be interested in such a scheme?"... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/when_marin_also.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/when_marin_also.shtml music Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:17:55 -0800 The verdict was entered against the orchestra's former financial director, 35-year-old Cameron Poole. "It is claimed Mr Poole used orchestra cheques and credit cards to pay for work on his house in Herne Hill, South London, and also to buy jewellery and artwork."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/london_philharm_1.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/london_philharm_1.shtml music Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:54:50 -0800 The Tehran Symphony Orchestra has just completed a five-city tour of Western Europe featuring Majid Entezami's Peace and Friendship Symphony, which Michael Kimmelman describes as "a four-movement jeremiad of martial bombast and almost unfathomable incompetence and silliness." The audiences were embarrassingly small; almost the only people to show up willingly were protesters.... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/irans_hapless_m.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/irans_hapless_m.shtml music Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:42:04 -0800 "Labels are signing artists all the time, of course, but usually, I believe, to much shorter, 'let's-see' contracts of a couple of recordings at a time. If you have a chance at Lang Lang, however, you grab him; and Sony in any case seems to be in collecting mode at the moment."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/sonys_lang_lang.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/sonys_lang_lang.shtml music Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:34:38 -0800 Prokofiev's "The Gambler" is "buzzy and exciting, fiercely dramatic and modern, but where are the tunes? There aren't any. Prokofiev's own mother reprimanded him over this when she heard him working on the orchestration."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/when_prokofiev.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/when_prokofiev.shtml music Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:19:10 -0800 "Geneva's opera house has taken the unusual step of issuing a warning to audiences about its new production of Alban Berg's harrowing opera Lulu, saying it may be unsuitable for people aged less than 16."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/lulu_in_geneva.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/lulu_in_geneva.shtml music Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:56:44 -0800 http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/blue_whales_son.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/blue_whales_son.shtml music Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/an_opera_house_1.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/an_opera_house_1.shtml music Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:23:00 -0800 There is a widespread "idea that audiences should be open to new things, and that they should be convinced to give them a try." And yet a person "who comes to the movie theater to see 'Avatar' is not necessarily going to be thrilled if I show him 'Pan's Labyrinth' instead, even if I'm convinced that he would really love it if only he would watch it."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/classical_music_61.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/classical_music_61.shtml music Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:37:59 -0800 "The Chinese musician Lang Lang, 27, has signed for Sony Classical for $3 million, an executive familiar with the move at his old label Deutsche Grammophon told me. A Sony spokeswoman in London said that the company wouldn't comment," but it's an advantageous move for the label.... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/lang_lang_signs.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/lang_lang_signs.shtml music Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:01:36 -0800 "More than 3,000 people have signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling on the Prime Minister 'to ensure that all members of the public have continued, free and open access to the complete historic and valuable musical instrument collection,'" which the museum is to break up to increase room for the fashion collection.... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/va_plan_to_brea.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2010/02/va_plan_to_brea.shtml music Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:25:18 -0800