London achieved its musical status in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, adding two new symphony orchestras and drawing a surprised endorsement from Arturo Toscanini that they ranked among the best. Today, star maestros shun London and one of its symphony orchestras came within a matter of days of being abolished. - The Critic
"I can’t put myself in the unisex Crocs of a young person exploring classical music for the first time, but Apple Classical strikes me as an oddly clumsy point of entry." - The New Yorker
Felix Klieser, who was born without arms, at the Proms: "When I see myself it looks very interesting and very spectacular. But when I play by myself it's a very comfortable position. ... It's something I can do for hours." - BBC
It should, right? Well, that depends. "The wider concern is that any price rise will benefit record labels and services, with platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music typically taking 30% of all subscription income, much more than the artists." - The Guardian (UK)
Why? Well ... "Your videos are terribly lit. The room you are in is very, very dark. ... That’s before we even get into the audio quality. Even concerts recorded by professionals with high-quality equipment often don’t sound all that great." - The Verge
Well, OK, "seismic activity," anyway. Turns out "it’s actually 'quite common' for humans partying to create such vibrations, sending 'a lot of energy into the ground.' That energy travels as sound waves through the Earth." - Washington Post
From the start, the word was often deployed as a slur, a way of mocking bands for dealing in “soft” subjects, like heartbreak. To this day, multiple waves and revivals later, the term is still shorthand for immature, melodramatic angst. - The New Yorker
"Treemonisha experiments seem to be everywhere these days: Three very different versions have recently been presented, in the United States, Canada and France. Their timing is a coincidence, and all were envisioned before the widespread calls for diversifying the canon over the past few years." - The New York Times
All the fears and complaints that Hollywood actors and writers have are a reality for musicians and songwriters, too. Yet the rockers, pop singers and hip-hop artists are not on strike to protest their paltry royalties or AI inroads. One big reason? They’re not unionized. - Los Angeles Times
New music for old instruments is, of course, nothing new. Nor is the engagement by composers with varying degrees of historically informed performance. But in scouring the internet, there appear to be new directions revealing unknown aspects of old instruments. - Early Music America
With each musician guaranteed $200 for an hour-long set, “we’ve presented about 400 concerts featuring 500 musicians, reaching about 18,000 listeners." - San Francisco Classical Voice
Like Kleiber, Klaus Tennstedt and Leonard Bernstein seemed to harness everything they knew in the heat of the moment. But Kleiber also had structural rigour and brisk tempos that gave his performances an infectious buoyancy. - Gramophone
"The ENO will move to a base outside the capital by March 2029 – three years after originally envisaged. Before then, it will develop an artistic programme in its new city, while transitioning to a new business model that allows it to deliver a substantial season every year in (London)." - The Guardian
