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Last word on Abbey Road

February 26, 2010 By

Nothing has been solved by the British Government's preservation order on Abbey Road studios. All it means is that the building cannot be demolished for the time being, although it can and will continue to lose money - or not make enough - for its owners, EMI, and their owners, the hedge fund Terra Firma. So what's to be done? I shall be talking about it at 2pm New York time today with John Schaefer on WNYC's Soundcheck. If you're snowbound or otherwise free, you can listen in real time … [Read more...]

02/26/10 4:52 PM | filed under: main |

Karajan’s ears, RIP

February 24, 2010 By

The studio man most trusted by Herbert von Karajan has died in Paris, aged 79. Michel Glotz was the maestro's ears and eyes. An EMI flak who fell out with the label's British management when, after sacking Walter Legge, they proposed to replace Karajan with Sir John Barbirolli, he had been helping Maria Callas through her Onassis crisis when Karajan made him an irresistible offer. As Glotz told Karajan's biographer, Richard Osborne, over dinner … [Read more...]

02/24/10 9:51 AM | filed under: main |

Discounting for Domingo

February 23, 2010 By

The Royal Opera House Covent Garden is operating a payback policy for anyone who bought tickets for Tamerlano next month, expecting to hear Placido Domingo in the role of Bazajet. The great tenor is about to undergo 'preventative surgery' for an unspecified condition that will put him out of action for at least six weeks. Although the ROH has a cast-iron policy of never giving back what has honestly passed through the box-office grille, it is breaking the rule in this case "in … [Read more...]

02/23/10 9:08 AM | filed under: main |

Abbey Road – not for sale, after all

February 22, 2010 By

EMI have moved - very slowly, after a week's deliberation - to deny that the Abbey Road studios are up for sale. Since the original reports were planted on the Financial Times by EMI's owners, the hedge fund Terra Firma, today's denial has to be seen as an exercise in testing the market - an attempt to see whether the site might fetch a higher price than the £30 million which EMI now admits it was offered last summer. As property prices in the NW8 postal district continue … [Read more...]

02/22/10 10:11 AM | filed under: main |

Learn to play the Lang Lang way

February 21, 2010 By

One of the busiest events on London's South Bank Centre next year will be a 10-day residency by the Chinese pianist in May 2011 in which children from all over the country are summoned to play. 'We've inspired 40 million kids to play the piano in China,' Lang Lang is quoted as saying, 'now let's get started here'. The plan is to wheel in an army of keyboard instruments for any young person to tinkle, climaxing in a massed finale when Lang Lang's chosen talents … [Read more...]

02/21/10 3:01 PM | filed under: main |

Why Mahler? at Europe’s biggest arts centre

February 19, 2010 By

London's South Bank announced its 2010-2011 classical music season this morning, a season which contains no fewer than 26 Mahler performances and possibly more. In and around these concerts, I shall be curating a series of events, interpretations, inspirations and provocations under the banner Why Mahler? - which is also the title of my forthcoming book on the composer and his intellectual legacy. I can't yet announce what's in the series, but I can promise that it will not … [Read more...]

02/19/10 2:51 PM | filed under: main |

Abbey Road – first bids are in

February 19, 2010 By

Andrew Lloyd Webber wants to buy it, apparently. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1252116/Ill-save-Abbey-Road-Andrew-Lloyd-Webber-promises-30m-plus-buy-studios.html Tim Rice might bid, too. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/7265848/Abbey-Road-Andrew-Lloyd-Webber-very-interested-in-buying-former-Beatles-studio.html What price Madonna?   See previous posts here … [Read more...]

02/19/10 8:43 AM | filed under: main |

Abbey Road update

February 18, 2010 By

There were more than a hundred tourists milling outside the studios in the noonday rain, a few minutes ago. The magnetism of the place is indisputable and, though the wise heads at Terra Firma, are talking of marketing an Abbey Road brand, once the place is closed to musical activity there will be nothing left to attract the crowds. What draws people to Abbey Road is the cover of the Beatles album that they mimic in posed foursomes on the famous zebra crossing. But they … [Read more...]

02/18/10 1:03 PM | filed under: main |

What’s really happening at Abbey Road

February 17, 2010 By

There was a removals van outside Abbey Road studios this morning, but I think it was for the house next door. This is not an overnight sale, nor is it the first time the studios have been floated on the market.  Sir Paul McCartney's suggestion on BBC Newsnight that a 'solution' might be found does not necessarily means that Abbey Road will continue as a recording venue. Those days are gone, probably forever. What Abbey Road could become is what London lacks - a … [Read more...]

02/17/10 9:39 AM | filed under: main |

One Abbey Road for sale

February 16, 2010 By

News that the hedge-trimmers who own EMI are putting the Abbey Road studios up for sale comes as no surprise round here. Living round the corner, as I do, I have seen a thinning of the trail of musicians making their Monday morning slog to work, and the great orchestral pantechnicons are rarely seen nowadays in the courtyard. It's not just to do with the shrinking record industry. Many of the facilities provided by Abbey Road can now be emulated on a laptop in a musician's … [Read more...]

02/16/10 3:38 PM | filed under: main |
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