I was in Tower Records the other day, and they were playing the opening chorus of what turned out to be the Klemperer recording of Bach's B Minor Mass. It was slow and massive, moving (if it could be said to move at all) without a trace of what we now understand to be Baroque rhythm. Nobody, I think, could do Bach that way today. Some people would laugh, others would groan. Then, later the same day, I was listening to a 1955 Charles Munch recording of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, and could barely believe the liner notes. They were by Louis … [Read more...]

I've gotten two e-mails about my "Media world" post, from people who got the idea that I'm impressed because guys in the Marines put Carmina Burana -- a classical piece -- on DVDs they made about their time in Iraq. So I guess I didn't write clearly enough. Really, I do know that Carmina Burana has been heard a lot in pop culture; I wouldn't conclude that anyone who uses it on the soundtrack of their homemade movie is sophisticated in any way about classical music. What I wanted to say, instead, was that guys in the Marines are making such … [Read more...]

The recent announcement from the BBC about their upcoming broadcast of everything Bach wrote reminds me that — unaccountably —I never said anything about their free Beethoven downloads, which must be the most wildly successful classical music promotion I’ve ever heard of. And it wasn’t just the downloads. They filled their website with Beethoven material, fascinating, readable stuff. They knew, in other words, how to create an event. And in fact they’ve been creating classical music events for a while now. We shouldn’t forget their … [Read more...]

Is it just me, or is this yet another demonstration of the way classical music lives in a little box, without looking up to think how it might look to the outside world? A CD by Early Music New York came in the mail, called A Bohemian Christmas. Now, nothing against the CD itself, which is just fine, really nice to listen to. But won't most people think first of offbeat artists celebrating Christmas, and not, as the group intends, about Christmas in medieval Bohemia, the place Dvorak later came from, which is now part of the Czech … [Read more...]

My wife's cousin just got back from Iraq. He's in the Marines; he was in combat for seven months. And he came back with a DVD full of films about his unit there. He didn't make them; someone else (or maybe a couple of someone elses) in his unit did. The films were quite adept -- mixtures of stills and video, with music, little snippets of shoutss or conversations, explosions, gunfire, black-humor asides. And all with music running in the background, either the "O fortuna" opening of Carmina Burana, or else rock songs (acerbic rap/metal … [Read more...]

From Ian Moss, Development and Marketing Associate at the American Music Center, and a faithful correspondent: I've known situations where someone brings a classical music newbie to a concert or whatever, they enjoy it or at least say they enjoy it, but that's it. There's no desire on their part to now seek out whatever that orchestra or ensemble is doing next, or to read up on the big issues in classical music, or this or that. They've put in their time and it was a fun night out and the next time they'll go see some comedy or … [Read more...]

Looks like the first installment of my book will appear online two weeks from today, on Monday, October 25. In a week, there should be some publicity, with more details. As I've said, this will be the first draft of what eventually will be a published book. Comments will be welcome (and in fact I'll leave two weeks between installments, to give time for comments). They'll help me immeasurably. But I still need a title. Any ideas? The subject, of course, is the future of classical music. And the contents will be arranged more or less like … [Read more...]

From my faithful correspondent (and former student, and pianist, and movement teacher) Eric Barnhill comes this: Your columns on City Opera reminded me of a nice opportunity I had several weeks ago to talk about City Opera's marketing with a couple of early-30s women who have no interest in opera, although as former dancers they both were very connected to the arts. One of them brought in the mail while I was over and they had a postcard from City Opera, that was in imitation of a personals ad section. I thought it was cute and asked them … [Read more...]

An ArtsJournal link on Monday took me to a Chicago Tribune story about the death of a Chicago chamber orchestra. The orchestra is the Concertante di Chicago, and the reasons given for its folding are very simple: "We looked into the future and were concerned about what we saw with audiences," [said Sheryl A. Sharp, the chair of the orchestra's board]. "We play to a generally older crowd, and frankly they were falling by the wayside. When we looked to see who was coming up behind them, we were not encouraged."[Artistic director Hillel Kagan] … [Read more...]

Maybe a month ago I mentioned I book I plan to write; I said I'd draft it online, and welcome comments from anyone who reads it. And since I mentioned it again in my previous post, I'd better give an update. The book is happening. I won't draft it on this blog, but on another, more public, site to be announced. I hope that I'll begin to post my draft sometime this month. Watch for announcements! The plan, so far, is to post a new installment every two weeks, with time off for holidays, and maybe other breaks as well. Between installments, I'll … [Read more...]