Music

“I saw ‘A New Hope’ with both the NSO and the BSO in September and found that the experience confirmed something I had started to suspect: As a classical music critic, I was clueless. That is: While I liked John Williams’s music just fine when I first saw the film at age 12, by the time I had attained legal adulthood, laden with a cargo of acquired snobbery about the superiority of Western civilization, I had learned, and bravely parroted, that ‘film music’ was somehow beneath me.”  – Washington Post

“The cultural secretary’s office admitted that the [earlier report] relied on information in a public government database that, in effect, converted the guest performers’ fees [between] American dollars to Mexican pesos twice, vastly inflating the totals in some cases.” Some observers are suggesting that the charge against Prieto, music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic as well as of Mexico’s flagship orchestra, was being pushed by musicians unhappy with his leadership. — The New Orleans Advocate

Eventually, the centuries-old string instruments for which this Italian city is famous will become too fragile to play. “So that future generations won’t miss out on hearing [them], three sound engineers are producing the ‘Stradivarius Sound Bank’ — a database storing all the possible tones that four instruments selected from the Museo del Violino’s collection can produce.” But the mics are extremely sensitive … — The New York Times

A look into the backstory of a quartet that became two rare things: a star classical percussion group and a genuinely hip chamber ensemble. — Ludwig van Toronto

“A contract between management and musicians expired Tuesday night as they continue to debate whether shrinking the BSO’s season from 52 weeks to 40 weeks a year is the best path forward. The development is unlikely to have any immediate, public effects. … The dispute, however, is seen as a threat to the orchestra’s continued role as one of the nation’s preeminent orchestras.” — Baltimore Business Journal

The British harpsichordist and conductor, who currently leads the Academy of Ancient Music (from which he recently announced his departure) and begins a stint as artistic partner at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra next season, succeeds Nicholas McGegan at the helm of the San Francisco period-instrument band at the start of the 2020-21 season. — San Francisco Chronicle

The 53-year-old Mexico City native, who is also music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic, is accused of paying exorbitant fees to foreign soloists, something both he and his manager insist is a currency conversion mistake. And musicians from the orchestra are reportedly urging Mexican officials to fire Prieto for poor leadership. — The New Orleans Advocate

Gregory Tucker: “What has long been hailed as Baltimore’s ‘other major league team’ is about to risk losing its major-league status. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Board of Directors, of which I was a member until this past June, has decided that Baltimore and Maryland can no longer afford a major league symphony orchestra, given what are real and persistent financial challenges. It is proposing cutting the season by 12 weeks.” – Washington Post

“The TravelBass breaks down into separate components for transport in a custom case, and is assembled for play when double bassists reach their destination. Its makers – out of Parma, Italy – reckon that roving musicians should be able to take it on aircraft as carry on luggage in a custom hard case … designed to survive life in the cargo hold.” — New Atlas

Joan Harvey sings the praises of the astounding variety of music to discover (and facts to learn) at Concertzender.nl. (We here at ArtsJournal can recommend it, too.) Yes, the site is in Dutch, but most of it is available in (sometimes quirky) English if you click on the tiny Union Jack in the upper right corner. — 3 Quarks Daily

“While he hasn’t wanted to make what he called ‘a big fuss’ about his relationship, [Yannick] Nézet-Séguin sees himself and [partner Pierre] Tourville as symbolic of a widening conception of what a conductor can be.” — The New York Times

As the music festival-industrial-complex has become another way of American life, it’s also been increasingly and reasonably subjected to litmus tests reflecting the increased social awareness that society has taken on over the past several years.  – New York Magazine

The results were underwhelming. “Outreach risks taking on a missionary, self-satisfied glow, getting caught up in the innate value of sharing such great music with those who have not been privileged to have been exposed to it. Lurking within this well-meaning construct is the toxic view of music as a kind of largesse: the idea that this music is better than the music you already like. The school concert, with all the best intentions, to some degree demonstrated that if classical music is offered in its own bubble, without context, it has little chance of really connecting with new audiences.” – Washington Post

“It feels, pretty simply, like yet another example of a tech company creating a highly personalized product in seemingly warm partnership with its users, then realizing that it can trade on this goodwill to make money.”  – Vox

After a six-part documentary series on Lifetime in which dozens of women and women’s families came forward to accuse the singer of abusing and molesting young women and teenage girls, prosecutors say he’d be hard to try because “bringing a case is difficult without cooperating victims.” – The New York Times

To be fair, the MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner only retired from academia. Perhaps that’s why he’s cheerfully working on a five-day opera, a 12-album set of a previous cycle of music, and overseeing his foundation and his label. – The New York Times

Can you tell the story of Harlem’s Apollo Theater without being a booster? Nope, at least not in graphic novel form. “The remarkable institution is a microcosm of the world of black popular culture in all its highs and lows, achievements and setbacks — not to mention sustaining myths and necessary lies.” – NPR

Using his own fortune, Verdi built the retirement home for opera singers and musicians, a neo-Gothic structure that opened in 1899. The composer died less than two years later, but he made sure the profits from his music copyrights kept the home running until the early 1960s, when they expired. Today guests pay a portion of their monthly pension to cover basic costs – food and lodging — while the rest comes from donations. – NPR

The Dutch conductor, who is currently music director of the New Zealand Symphony and has held the same post with the symphony orchestras of Antwerp, San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Netherlands Radio, will conduct three to four weekly programs each season, beginning in 2019-2020. — Times of San Diego

The destruction wrought on Myrna Herzog’s 1661 Edward Lewis bass viola da gamba by the Italian airline during Herzog’s trip from Rio de Janeiro to Tel Aviv last January made headlines internationally. Fortunately, Alitalia readily agreed to pay for restoration, and after a year’s worth of work by luthier Shlomo Moyal, the instrument is repaired and ready for performance. — Classic FM (UK)

“[GCO’s] founder, Neal Goren, is back in business — thanks to an unusual collaboration between his new company, Catapult Opera, and Peak Performances at Montclair State University, which will present four of Catapult’s productions.” — The New York Times

One of the defining characteristics of today’s classical music is the ways in which it’s breaking the usual rules. Genre-less, as some call it. So you’re not shunned if you’re writing tunes when those around you stay atonal. Allan Kozinn listens and makes some recommendations. – San Francisco Classical Voice