Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

"Arresting Cellist Wins Award, Will Make Debut." Why not say something like that? That was my advice, in my last post, to people writing classical music press releases. Why not start with a headline that tells us why we ought to care about whatever event the release promotes? Drew McManus agreed. My suggestion, he e-mailed me, is simply "common sense." But there's one little wrinkle. If you're going to write a headline that grabs attention and is also honest, the artist it's about has to have distinctive qualities, either personal or … [Read more...]

My wife and I are both critics; we both get press releases, announcing classical music events. Their quality, it's fair to say, is dismal. Which isn't to say they aren't written with professional skill, or some reasonable imitation of that. But they don't say anything. Example (chosen just because it came in the mail today; it's no worse than many others): 43d Young Concert Artists Series Presentsthe New York Debut ofRomanian Cellist Laura Buruiana March 9, 2004 -- On Tuesday, March 23, 2004, at 8:00 PM, Young concert Artists presents … [Read more...]

Here's the cover of a new classical CD, from a major label, Universal Classics: It's ugly and ridiculous. Brendel looks like he's in pain; Goerne looks like he's roaring. (And it looks worse in real life than it does here.) When we in classical music aren't doing music -- and especially when we advertise or market ourselves -- we live in the same world as everybody else. Other people design good CD covers. It's not hard to do. If we don't do it -- especially for an A-list recording like this one -- we look like fools. … [Read more...]

…on the Fat Issue: 1. It's common and reasonable to make casting choices based in part on how people look. Just last week I heard dance teachers at Juilliard say that students routinely lose out in auditions because choreographers think they're too heavy. Someone at Juilliard's opera program said the same thing happens at regional opera companies. This isn't discrimination, in any legal or ethical sense. It's art; choreographers and directors care how their productions look on stage. Regional opera companies are able to care, I should add, … [Read more...]

From a brief Q&A with soprano Andrea Gruber, in the April issue of Opera News: All-time favorite singer: Janis Joplin. One thing I absolutely cannot live without: My CD player, mini-speakers, and hip-hop, R&B or rap music before I go onstage. Guilty-pleasure CD: Justified, by Justin Timberlake. And from a longer Q&R with singer-songwriter Rufus Wainright, in the March 14 New York Times Magazine: Hero: Verdi. This is a bust of him [pictured]. He's my favorite composer. I'd like to follow the examples he set in his career, writing … [Read more...]

Yesterday I shopped in a new Staples that providentially opened a block a way from me. Office supplies right down the street! A genuine convenience for the busy freelancer. And as I was coming out, I noticed a big Staples ad, featuring the tagline "That was easy(SM)." The SM, of course, is a superscript, marking -- like dog piss on a tree -- Staples territory, a service mark they've legally registered, so nobody can steal it. I had to laugh. Service marks like that -- and we see a lot of them in advertising -- accidentally tell a … [Read more...]

I've been in the Bahamas, on vacation, and I've also been intoxicated with a piece I'm writing, the slow movement of a prospective symphony. It's emerging as a pop ballad, with classic doowop harmony; cheesy, some might say, but isn't it supposed to be? And all scored for a Haydn-size orchestra, two oboes, bassoon, two horns, and strings. Quite a trick, I might say, scoring a pop ballad for those instruments. Where's the rhythm section? (Though that's not the biggest problem -- cello and double bass, playing pizzicato, can make a lot of rhythm. … [Read more...]

Not long ago I went to hear Haydn's Creation at the New York Philharmonic. The performance wasn't much to write home about -- Maazel conducted with a kind of distracted ferocity, pushing the music forward, but not doing much else with it. Barbara Bonney, the soprano soloist, sang badly out of tune; Bruce Ford, the tenor, was not much more than competent. Only Thomas Quasthoff, the bass soloist, stood out, singing with more truth and radiant delight than any singer I've heard in quite a while. I wanted to jump on stage, and say to Bonney … [Read more...]

Here are some excerpts from Philip Kennicott's Washington Post piece, linked from ArtsJournal today, which so wonderfully -- and justly  -- praises Sam Bergman's blog. And no, they're not about Sam, except indirectly. They're about the woeful state of orchestras, part of which is how woefully they communicate with…well, whom? Quite honestly, I don't know who most orchestra PR might be aimed at. The present audience? A new audience? The classical music press? The general press? The only thing most orchestras communicate that could interest … [Read more...]

I haven't been blogging, and haven't said how thrilled I am with Alex Ross's piece on the nature of classical music, which ran in The New Yorker in the issue dated February 22, and was linked here last week. This is surely the most important essay ever written on classical music's future, or maybe, more precisely, on what its future ought to be. As I wrote to him after I read his essay (it's called "Listen to This"), he leapfrogs all the usual debate, all the breast-beating, all the criticisms people like me make, all the cries of "whither … [Read more...]

Barenboim's announcement -- that he'll leave the Chicago Symphony when his current contract expires two years from now -- demonstrates two things. First, that music directors really are expected, in this new era for classical music, to do more than conduct. "After much soul-searching and reflection," Barenboim said (in the orchestra's official press release), "I have come to realize that the position and responsibilities of a music director in America are changing in that they require many non-artistic activities and I feel I have neither the … [Read more...]

A reader writes to tell me that I'm wrong about the Grammys. There's no contradiction between the Boulez Mahler Third being named the best orchestral performance, while the Tilson Thomas CD of the same piece is named best classical album. There seems to be a problem here, of course, because if the best album is orchestral, as this one is, than you'd think it would be best orchestral performance as well. But not so, says my correspondent. The orchestral award is specifically for the music -- "best orchestral performance" is exactly what it … [Read more...]

It's pointless to argue with award shows, but still there's something about the classical Grammy winners that makes no sense. The best classical album was Mahler's Third Symphony, with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony. And the best orchestral album was Mahler's Third, but this time with the Vienna Philharmonic, Pierre Boulez conducting. Which, as I said, makes no sense! The Tilson Thomas Mahler Third is of course an orchestral album. So if it's the best classical album of the year, then it also has to be the … [Read more...]

Yesterday there was an ArtsJournal link to Anthony Tomassini's optimistic piece in the New York Times about the classical record business. In that piece, and in the ArtsJournal summary, was something that needs some qualification. Major record labels, Tony says, aren't doing so well, but Smaller labels like Nonesuch and Naxos, which once just filled in the gaps with records of specialty repertory and adventurous artists ignored by the majors, are proving that it is possible to release important recordings at midrange prices and still pay the … [Read more...]

I was tickled to see my Wall Street Journal piece on problems with classical music digital downloads linked both here on ArtsJournal, and on Musical America. I also got a tide of e-mail, maybe more than I've ever gotten about anything I've written, including my Boston Symphony/modernism post here. Clearly I tackled problems many people have been having, among them an executive from one of the major classical record labels, who's been terribly frustrated by all the things I wrote about. Of course I've written about these things here, too; in … [Read more...]